It's a Mourning Cloak.
Back when I first decided I wanted to start butterfly-spotting, I longed to see one of these. I thought I saw one on a windy day a couple of years ago. And last year, I could have sworn I saw one or two through the summer, but they never stayed still long enough for me to know for sure.
This year, however, I've been seeing the hell out of them. They're as common as Cabbage Whites.
In case you were wondering . . .
Compare to May 2007 . . .
. . . and October 2008.
So while there was a dramatic change from May '07 to October '08, there's been no change since. Unless you count the part about the dogs. Which I don't even begin to comprehend.
What are they saying, that if another stinking dog drags its sorry ass to town, it won't make it till sundown?
Beats me.
Remember how I got a bird nestbox a couple of years ago hoping to attract some Violet-green swallows to our yard? But I put it up too late in the spring, so no Violet-green Swallows came? (Not that I've seen any but the highest flying swallows in our immediate neighborhood anyway.) And Bucko saw a Bewick's Wren checking out the box some time in the summer? Remember that?
Well, last year, when winter was finally over (~June), a pair of Black-capped Chickadees moved in. We never saw them moving nesting material into the box, but it was obvious after a week that they were nesting there. Eventually, only one bird was flying to and from the box, so I figured that the other was then sitting on the nest. The All About Birds told me that the incubation period was 12-13 days, and sure enough, within a couple of weeks, we could hear tiny peepings from within. After a week or so, the peepings turned into rudimentary, scratchy-sounding chick-a-dee-dee-dees.
The parent birds worked hard, both of them constantly out catching bugs to take back to the little ones. Probably no more than three minutes (tops!) passed without one parent flying back to the box with food.
Eventually, I could even see the young birds scrambling up to the hole whenever the parent would leave after dropping off a morsel.
And then one day, they were gone. They had fledged.
It was the day after that when Bucko first caught sight of the young ones. Two of them. Usually sitting on one of the wires up front while the parents went to fetch them a nibble. By the next day, we were seeing them regularly. The parents would lead them to the seed feeders and pluck our sunflower seeds, hopefully showing the little dumbasses how to do it themselves.
And then the babies grew up and looked just like all the other chickadees, so we couldn't pick them out of a crowd.
A pair of chickadees moved into the nest box again this year - maybe a month ago. The babies were hatched before we went to Wallowa Lake. Yesterday, I went outside to check on the progress of The Garden and saw one food delivery to the box. I haven't spent much time outdoors this week though, as we've been having a cold/rainy spell.
It's a little warmer and drier today though. Every time I've been out, I've not seen a single chickadee around the box. I'm guessing that the babies fledged this morning. I hope that we'll get to see them soon.
Here's one of last year's babies, just a few days after fledging.
Still got a bit of pink on its bill.
I finally finished sorting and editing my trip pics late yesterday. I didn't think I'd taken that many photos on this adventure, but evidently I had. Possibly because I took dozens of photos of things like this:
Do you see it? Do you see it?
What about this one? Do you see it in this one?
Um, no? Okay, then. How about in this next one?
Still no?
Ah! There it is!
Water Ouzel!
Ta-freaking-dah!
Mind, we did see some wildlife on our recent trip.
F'r instance, one evening a herd of kangaroo came up and grazed right outside our cabin!
The Weather People have scheduled nice weather for today, which means that I'll be able to get some work done in The Garden. But given my druthers, I really wish we were still at the cabin on the Wallowa River.
Yes, while Typepad was telling you about last year's May Vacation, we were off on this year's May Vacation. While it wasn't the most wildlife-heavy adventure, it was chock full of Western Mountain Splendor™!
Okay. You know what's really great about May Vacation?
Babies!
Mallards.
Ponies.
Magpies.
Owls.
All right. This is the best part.
On the way home, we pulled over to let a speed demon by in the Yakima River Canyon. And I noticed that there were some Killdeers right next to us. One adult and four babies!
Nearer Ellensburg, we took a swing around the Ringer Loop because we'd seen a whole lot of birds there on the way to Yakima, and we saw a slightly older baby Killdeer.
Haha! Let's get physical!
We saw lots of birds on last year's May Vacation. Around here, early May is about the height of migration.
This Great Egret did not like when we stopped in the road to take its picture while on our way to Fort Simcoe State Park.
So off it flew!
All the way to Mt. Adams.
