Grandpa Ott's Morning Glory

Flower of the Day - Spider Lily

The Cats are Back!

Not sure if it is due to all the rain, but we have had numerous caterpillars in the garden.

Gulf Fritillary Caterpillar

Buckeye Caterpillar

Buckeye Caterpillar

Buckeye Butterfly Chrysalis

Giant Swallowtail Caterpillar

Hard to believe these turn into beautiful butterflies!

Update on the Wren Family

Baby Wren

Despite having to hatch out and feed a gigantic Cowbird, the Wrens had three successful fledglings. Yay! After the Cowbird fledged, the baby Wrens looked very malnourished and weak, they finally fledged a week later. They had to make up for lost time since the Cowbird was hogging all the food. The runt, which I nicknamed "Pee-Wee" was the size of a cotton ball.

Baby Wren sitting on the fence

I still see them around the yard while the mother is feeding them. The father has full responsibility for feeding the Cowbird. He is probably wondering what he got himself into. Ha!

Letting nature take its course...

Image Found on http://www.sialis.org/cowbirds.htm

I  recently was thrilled to discover a Wren nest in our garden. Miss Wren was diligent in guarding her nest and hatching out her eggs. My excitement soon turned to disappointment when I discovered that not only had Miss Wren hatched out all four of her babies, she also unknowingly had hatched a huge, ginormous Cowbird baby.

Cowbirds are considered to be parasitic birds and are notorious for laying eggs in other birds nests. If there is a removal of their egg, they will display "Mafia" type behavior and destroy the other eggs in the nest. They typically remove one of the hosts eggs and then deposit their egg in the early morning hours when the host bird is out foraging. The host bird has no idea the baby is not their own and will raise it as if it is part of the family.

As much as I dislike having to watch Miss Wren feed all her babies along with this monster baby bird, that to date is almost the size of her, I know this is all a part of Nature. I have to be patient and let nature take its course...

Lemon Coral Sedum

My new favorite plant!