Wednesday, July 6, 2016

Wildlife Wednesday: July 2016

Wildlife Wednesday celebrates its two-year anniversary today.  Two years of taking time on the first Wednesday of each month to post about wildlife in my garden and linking up with our hostess Tina at "My Gardener says...." for a look at wildlife in blogger gardens far and wide.  I appreciate the nudge this meme gives me to keep a camera handy and an eye out for wildlife while in the garden.

Almost every month I come up with a .GIF or "Awesome Motion" in Google terms.  For July it's an Anole up in a live oak showing off his dewlap to assert his territory and attract a mate.



Living along the butterfly flyway means I've shown lots of butterflies over the last two years.  Not all Monarch butterflies head for cooler climes in the heat of summer.  Here's one enjoying the shady side of a Gomphrena 'Fireworks' flower.



Gulf Fritillary are a summer staple, this one color coordinates with Aniscanthus wrightii.


Cicada exoskeleton left behind by a nymph which emerged after 1-17 years underground.  We have a few every year but nothing like we experienced while living in Virginia when we went through two different 17-year cicada invasions.   Not fun.  Billions of noisy cicadas "sing" loudly around the clock and descend on the area with their messy but short life cycle.  Cicadas splatted on windshields, sidewalks, and flew buzzing at the heads of anyone who dared walk among them.  After a few weeks the cicadas disappeared back underground leaving almost every tree in Northern Virginia with brown branch tips as a result of feeding the new larvae.


Let's move to a much prettier sight of a Cardinal checking the birdfeeder.


Spring rains bring tiny toads in such numbers I wonder where they come from.  We don't see them during dry weather and then they're everywhere after a rain.  Dormant "toad seeds" perhaps?


Another regular feature are my deer posts.  Bucks are growing antlers and beginning to form bachelor herds to size up the competition ahead of mating season in the fall.  Once their antlers grow they like to stay in the brush as a form of camouflage.   The buck on the left shows how it's done by blending his antlers in with trees and vines.


That's my collection of wildlife for July.  I'm still having fun so see you in August, meanwhile check out Tina's post for more links to other blogger wildlife posts.

12 comments:

  1. Great post and I always look forward to your GIFs!! Nice dewlap catch! You're butterfly shots are terrific, I'm also seen Monarchs from time to time--seems late, but I guess they know what they're doing?? I've neither seen nor heard cicadas this year, it must not be time for ours to emerge. Thanks so much for participating--glad you join in each month!

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  2. What a range of wildlife you captured with your camera, Shirley! I don't think we've ever experienced a cicada invasion here and, after seeing that exoskeleton, I'm all the more pleased about that. I love the little toad - I've never seen a toad or a frog on this property or our last one - it's very sad.

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  3. This is a great Wildlife Wednesday post. I think that Anole gif is my favorite among your "awesome motion" movies. What a cutie!

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  4. Happy July! Those are some handsome plant eaters at the bottom!

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  5. Love that GIF. And your butterfly photos are amazing. We have Monarchs here right now in the Houston area, too. I do believe you are right and that some stay here instead of migrating farther north. Either that or there are some that never migrate. I've been unable to discover any information about that. There is still so much that is unknown about Monarchs.

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  6. Love that GIF. And your butterfly photos are amazing. We have Monarchs here right now in the Houston area, too. I do believe you are right and that some stay here instead of migrating farther north. Either that or there are some that never migrate. I've been unable to discover any information about that. There is still so much that is unknown about Monarchs.

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  7. We rarely see bucks so it was a treat to see yours...and monarchs...none here, sadly. But that anole was adorable!

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  8. Gorgeous photos of the butterflies and I loved the deer.

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  9. Just found your site through Run Around Ranch. Awesome photos! Looks like y'all have a beautiful place. I like your comment about "Dormant Toad Seeds." :-) We're about 90 miles East and South of SA and like you, see them come out in numbers after Spring Rains. Neat sight to see all the little ones hopping around.

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    1. Thanks for stopping by Keith. I'm glad you enjoyed my take on wildlife in the garden. I'm often surprised how much I find each to post on each time.

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  10. I love that you have monarchs! The cicadas are singing again this summer but I don't mind. :o)

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  11. Such a nice collection of wildlife! I love your butterflies! There seem to be so many fewer butterflies up north where I live. I miss seeing all of them!

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