Frog pond is awake

Wood frogs are awake in the pond, as well as a butterfly. Only a few butterflies overwinter:

Not all butterflies overwinter as adults, of course. ...  Around Ottawa, Mourning Cloak (Nymphalis antiopa), Eastern Comma (Polygonia comma), Green Comma (Polygonia faunus), Question Mark (Polygonia interrogationis), Milbert’s Tortoiseshell (Nymphalis milberti), and Compton Tortoiseshell (Nymphalis vau-album) overwinter in their adult form.

I'm not sure which one this is on the dock! I think it is a tortoiseshell.  It's pretty rough-looking! The second one is a Compton Tortoiseshell, from my archives! They over-winter under leaves and in bark.
Species: Nymphalis vaualbum
Compton Tortoiseshell.
One that overwinters, and is rare! 

Here are the sounds, not silence!
Wood frogs from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

 
Frog pond sounds from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

Twas a busy night!

That was a busy night. Don't tell my Reptile & Amphibians group. Around 10 p.m. Dorah roared in the cat door, and I knew she'd brought something in. It was a red-belly snake. It wasn't amused, she dropped it on the floor in the hallway. Annie was watching quite keenly. I put it out in the garden.

Then, 3 a.m., Annie was roaring around the bed. She'd brought in George mouse, and was chasing it in circles. I slept through it. Hubby fetched the butterfly net, cornered it, and took George outside! He remembered the garage door, and closed it so we wouldn't have a repeat of Butch Raccoon in there.

Then, 3:00 a.m., Annabelle was roaring around in circles on the bed. I didn't wake up. Hubby told her to settle down, until she kept ramping it up. He realized that she'd brought George mouse to bed. Outside he goes, to fetch the butterfly net. George was in the corner, behind the door.




Today, Sunday, it is pouring rain. I should have checked the eavestrough! Sigh. Later...
Meantime, in our drought, the birds have been bathing in the birdbath, as well as the water fountain.


Hubby watering the garden for me.
 

Rain, butterflies, grasshopper, apples, happy gardens!

What a relief... rain! Our total, over three days, 27mm!  A gentle rain falls today, and it is much-welcomed. This morning we had 17mm (0.68"), and the garden is happy.

The yucca plant has produced three flower stems this year. I'm so happy. There were none last year, although I did prune the old, dead roots a bit. The woodpeckers like to take the seeds out, once the seed pods are dried.


From the safety of my deck, I spotted two Eastern butterflies making whoopie in the tree!
Then, the teeniest grasshopper I have ever seen on my laptop tray!
 

Then there are the lovely cedar waxwings! Not great photos, but it was the action I loved. They are everywhere around the house, in the trees. I seldom see them this near the ground, just beyond the apple tree.


With the rain, we have happy plants. I have two apple trees, one has several wee apples!


Veggie garden, which I've watered in the drought. Lots of snow peas to come, cherry and regular tomatoes, zuccinni and cukes are on their way! The Milkweed Tussock caterpillars do not seem to mind the rain.


Lots of milkweed. Pretty wilted - up until this week. The raspberries seem inured to the drought. We will have a ton of them!



Daisy found a mouse I'd seen, but not ID'd before. A Woodland Jumping Mouse. Annabelle was inspecting it for her, Daise was in snatching a snack, just before I walked down the drive to get the newspaper.
Sadly, Annie killed it, but I do think it was wounded. They are nocturnal, and hop. A long tail, and large back legs.

Butterflies and caterpillars as punctuation marks

Hops bine - climbing up to the roof!

The delights of a garden in summer. Our Hops
bine is full of critters, mostly aphids, but grasshoppers, ants, tree frogs, and lots of caterpillars, as I have written. I began watching it and learned some more from Butterflies and Moths of North America (BAMONA).
My friendly BAMONA regional expert explained an instar for me. They basically grow out of their skin 5 times until they are ready to cocoon and metapmorphosis occurs.

From my BAMONA expert, Ross: 

   An instar is what we call each of the five stages that a caterpillar goes through before it becomes a pupa. The first instar comes from the egg, it changes its skin to become the second, then the third, the fourth and the finally the fifth instar, Then it hangs up, head down, often in a J-shape, and the skin splits again to reveal the pupa or chrysalis inside. Then, after about ten days, the pupal skin splits and the butterfly emerges. Your photo looks like at least a fourth instar, or more likely a fifth. So it is almost ready to become a pupa.  Try it. It is fun to watch a butterfly emerge.

instar

An Estern Comma instar

I've been watching the instar of this Eastern comma caterpillar, having grabbed a few macro shots. I love their little heads!

Watch as it twists and twitches!


Eastern Comma Instar from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.
Eastern Comma (Polygonia comma) I spotted on the rafter last night at 8:30. This morning its backward J shape relaxed and I knew something was up. I set the videocam, and sped up 13.4 minutes of film 4x.

What is the difference between the Comma and the Question Mark? <= This website was helpful!

I wasn't sure I could differentiate between Eastern Comma (Polygonia comma) and Question Mark (Polygonia interrogationis). What is striking is how different they are with the wings top and bottom.
However, the Eastern comma has a row of 3 dots across the forewing. The Question Mark has a row of 4 dots. What this has to do with punctuation you have to see them at rest, with wings folded.

Eastern comma - a row of 3 dots on the wing

Early in spring

Question mark: Sunning, nicely resting,
on the Hop Bine.
In summer there is an “umbrosa” form of both butterflies 
in which the hindwing takes on a dark brown color.

Resting on the siding - this is a Comma,
you can see the marking.

Such camouflage!
Is this a comma?

So camouflaged!

Interesting bodies!

Question Mark

Another caterpillar

This is a mystery caterpillar, so far. I've put it into a fish tank, with foliage, and hope to find out what it is! They say only two species feed on my Hops Bine, but last year I had an IO caterpillar, and this year, another caterpillar.

Io caterpillar (2013)
(Don't touch, they are poky!)

New caterpillar (2014)