Yeah! I’m with you-I like watching it all.
And I have to tell you-having a wild animal land on your hand and eat from it-that is as charmed as I could get!
And they are sharp, cute little birds. I really like those Tufted Titmouse types! And I like Chickadees, too.
Chickadees are interesting. They did an experiment, and found that Chickadees (who hide, or cache their food so they can get through winter, can remember the location of 6,000 pieces of food they have hidden!!!
Interesting! I had no idea that Chickadees did that! (They sound like squirrels in that regard.)
The past month or so, I have been involved in a new “wildlife” project. I’ve been working with Monarch butterflies. I’ve had one variety of Milkweed plants (swamp) in one landscape bed for a few years, with once in a while seeing a few caterpillars every year.
Then a year ago, a friend of mine had a different variety, common milkweed, and was wanting to thin out her patch. So we dug some up, and I transplanted several of them near my swamp variety. This year, those transplants went crazy, and when the Monarch butterflies came in August, they went to town on eggs. Every day I had dozens and dozens of new caterpillars show themselves, for weeks on end.
Well, we had a cold spell several weeks ago. So I ordered a butterfly habitat, and coaxed 35 caterpillars that were hanging all over my milkweed plants into the habitat, and I brought inside for several days and nights. It warmed back up, and only 2 of those 35 didn’t complete into a chrysalis.
So for roughly 2 + weeks. I have been periodically watching butterflies emerge, and letting them fly free into the big wide world. It’s been a crazy couple of weeks. I’ve learned a lot, having never done anything like this before.
So far, 30 butterflies have emerged and flown off. 15 were males, and 15 were females. There’s one chrysalis left that looks like it will be fine. 2 others look diseased, so that’s a shame, but that’s nature.
We are fortunate to live on an almost 2 acre lot. The front is neighborhood. The back is private, very wooded, with a creek in the back. Beyond that is farmland with corn and soybeans. I have our property certified as a wildlife habitat, because that’s really what we have here. We are considered “semi-rural”. Hubby says it’s the best of both worlds. We have neighbors if we need them, and a good bit of privacy, too. We share our lot with the wild animals, and they let us watch them.