poor Little Dude, and other tales of the day

Let's see if I can remember everything.  I know I missed something the last time, figured I'd add it to the next blog and you know....I can't remember now what it was. 

oh well... good thing I take so many photos or I might not remember anything at days end!

Driving home from work today, I took a different road then usual and spotted a red-tailed hawk keeping watch over the road.  So I turned around and stopped in a parking lot. The whole time the hawk is watching me. 

"Crap, another tourist" 

At home, I got to the bottom of the steps and I suspected the squirrel was in the bin on my porch where I keep sunflower seeds. He'd chewed a hole in my bin and helps him/her self. I heard it trying to get out of the bin, it's opening is on the side I can't see from the patio.  Suddenly I saw fur, but it wasn't grey.  Around the corner comes Little Dude, the small groundhog! I was so surprised I yelled. Poor Dude was so scared, he came across the porch, towards me, to go down the steps.  But he was so terrified he lost his footing and ROLLED down two  steps, almost to my feet, then scurried under the house. By then I was laughing hard.  I felt so bad for him. 

Then I got distracted as I saw a red spotted purple, Monarch, and Red Admiral Butterflies at my butterfly bush.  What a morning!

Here the monarch was almost laying on the ground to check out one of the last dianthus on the plant.

Notice the two small blue spots between his hind wings

While this one isn't a great shot, I had to include it.  The camera for some reason only focused on his proboscis, which is partially unfurled and shows a little drop of nectar.

 I did get a lot of good shots of him.  It was difficult picking out what to share.

I wanted a better photo of the red spotted purple and went to see if I could find him.  Maybe he was at my neighbors bush. So I go around my home, and guess who was JUST coming out from under my home at the same time.  Little Dude! he popped out from under, saw me and went running under the neighbors home.  Poor Dude can't get a break can he?

Another visit by the hummingbird. Later it did chase off another one.  Such a small bird, but they have such big personalities!

This is one of my 13 captive caterpillars. As you can see he is discharging all his 'poop' so he can go into his chrysalis. I was surprised because I assumed when everyone mentioned their large poop discharge at the end, I thought it would be more of the small 'lava rock' type poop they generally leave everywhere.  I did check some online resources and finally found one that said their finally expulsion is  runny and more like diarrhea.

Then the search was on for a place to make it's chrysalis.  I forgot my sisters experience with her first one, that she followed for 2 hours as he roamed far and wide to find that perfect spot.  She'd tried to guide him, but he was one determined butterfly. He ended up on a wrought iron fence.  So forgetting all about her first time, I started watching this one.  and watching. Worrying.  Gathering up as many different kinds of sticks, trying to entice him to choose one. I had tall ones, fat ones, skinny ones, wide ones. Sticks with bark, sticks without.  But instead he walked around, and around, and around.  Some times falling on to the table.  He would climb up each stick, look around, and descend again. PICKY!   When my sister called I'd already been watching him over an hour.  We talked quite a bit on the phone and once in awhile it distracted me from him. And he moves fast.  I lost track of him!  I've no idea where he went, but since I was right at the table I don't want to believe he actually got on the table and onto the ground without me noticing. But it's not impossible I'm sure, since they can be slick!  Like the cat that showed up half grown on my fennel recently despite my checking every day.

Now, I'm sitting there for a long time, trying to be still. The big groundhog from across the stream actually came over, and was partly across the yard when he saw me sitting there and turned around fast and ran across the stream.  (though really when he gets to the water he slows down and is carefully crossing!)
I hear some other, closer, noises.  Leaf rustling, things like that.  Here comes Little Dude, trying to sneak through the bottom of the butterfly garden and across the yard to get to his corn.  At least this time he knows I'm there.  I think he's getting desperate to get some weight on before hibernation.  He's hungry.  So he's now willing to take more risk.  But he's skittish.  He watches me every step, so I'm trying to do nothing more then breath.

Finally he gets to eat a little. But if I make a move he will run back to his burrow (the shed is to the left of the bank). Then sneak out again.
I'm getting overwhelmed by everything that's suddenly coming to the yard. house finches are joining the goldfinch at the feeder,  my little wren  and woodpecker come to the suet, and the cardinal family visits too.  I also have a very young mourning dove, who's parent is trying to watch over it.  Then I carefully look over at the tree in time to see a Question Mark butterfly on it's trunk. I'm slowly, carefully , not breathing trying to get some photos. None of them are good.  but I was able to see the '?' mark on it's wing.

Inadvertently chasing off the butterfly is a squirrel, coming to his feeder.  I just sit and watch when he is halfway down the tree and sees me.  He isn't sure what he's seeing because he stops and stares. It was hard not to laugh when he tilted his head to the right, then to the left looking at me, trying to figure out what was going on, as if he wasn't sure if I was a threat.  I'm not sure about their vision, what they see, if they see only certain colors, etc.  I do know he was a little unsure.  he opted not to come down the tree the whole way, and went to his feeder, took a piece of corn off the cob and went across a branch above me, across to my roof and off the end to go hide it.  He stopped across the branch once to look down at me.

I finally had to move because the caterpillar was all over the place and I was worried he'd call off the table, since he'd just fallen off the planter. When I moved, everybody scattered, birds flew and squawked, Dude high tailed it back to his burrow again.

It was getting late in the afternoon and I was tired of  waiting for the cat to pick a place  and went inside to work on the photos.  Soon I heard a noise in the porch and thought, again, it was the squirrel, either looking to see if I'd bring out some peanuts, or getting into the sunflower seeds.  I tiptoe to the door and was surprised to see Little Dude on the other side, looking to get into the seeds.  He must really be getting desperate to be this brazen. I tried to get my camera (of course I'd just taken out the batter and memory card) but till I had it together he was gone. He left a lot quieter then he came!!

Needless to say, I didn't get anything done.  But it was such a beautiful day to sit outside and observe.  At least that's what I keep telling myself.  :)