Metamorphosis

A few weeks ago we found signs that something was munching on the leaves of the Meyer Lemon tree in our backyard. The culprit, it turned out, was a strange-looking caterpillar called an "Orange Dog" (because of their appetite for citrus tree leaves) that would one day make a marvelous transformation into a Giant Swallowtail Butterfly.

In my screened-in porch, I created a habitat of leaves and sticks in a tray for the caterpillar and a few days later it formed a chrysalis on one of the sticks. Within the chrysalis, which looked just like a dead branch, the caterpillar would make its metamorphosis over the next 14 days.

One morning I walked out on my porch and there it was, a stunning Giant Swallowtail Butterfly! At some point earlier that morning, it had emerged from the chrysalis and flew up onto my screen, where it was drying its delicate wings in the sunlight. The next day, it flew out into the world, landing on our bougainvillea blooms before fluttering off into the bright blue sky.

Empty Giant Swallowtail chrysalis

Giant Swallowtail chrysalis Day 4

Giant Swallowtail Butterfly chrysalis Day 1

Orange Dog caterpillar turning into a chrysalis

Orange Dog caterpillar

Orange Dog caterpillar

Evidence of the "Orange Dog" caterpillar eating the leaves of the tree.

Our Meyer Lemon Tree

Rare sighting: Cuban Pewee in the Everglades

This Saturday I saw a rare Cuban Pewee at Everglades National Park, a once-in-a-lifetime experience that I will be able to treasure for years with beautiful photos and video thanks to Jeff Bouton, my guide and photography expert. The Pewee was spotted about a week ago, the first sighting in the park ever and only the third sighting of this species in North America.

The Cuban Pewee, a resident of northern Bahamas and Cuba that lives in pine forests, mangroves, and swamp edges, is a small gray flycatcher with a dark head, orange bill and telltale white crescent behind the eye. The one that I saw in the Long Pine Key forest in the Everglades flitted about from branch to branch in the same area for a good part of the afternoon, enchanting a group of a dozen or so birders staking it out, with its distinctive call "dee, dee, dee, dee." Its wings looked a bit ragged and worn but it was a very active little thing!

The bird was first discovered in the Everglades by birding guide Larry Manfredi. There was a story in the Miami Herald about the sighting: link here.

I was at Everglades National Park with a group of birders from the Tropical Audubon Society. The group was led by Jeff Bouton, an expert in digiscoping, a photography technique that combines the use of a digital camera with a scope. With Jeff's help, I was able to take some amazing photos of the Pewee as well as other birds in the South Dade area that morning. I posted some photos here. Not all of them are digiscoped, some are regular photos off my digital camera.

What an amazing day!

Digiscoped Video of Cuban Pewee at Everglades National Park

Eastern Kingbird

Baltimore Oriole

Cardinal (digiscoped)

European Starling (digiscoped)

Tree Snail

Everglades Anhinga Trail

Dragonfly

Red-shouldered Hawk

Baltimore Oriole (digiscoped)

Everglades National Park, Coe Visitor Center

Wildlife Wonders out West

Our trip out West in August was packed with wildlife adventures. We visited Wyoming and South Dakota, with stops at Badlands National Park, the Black Hills, Mount Rushmore, Yellowstone National Park, and the Grand Tetons, as well as Jackson Hole.

We saw Elk, Buffalo, Bighorn Sheep, Coyote, Black Wolf, Antelope, Prairie Dogs and Moose. We also saw lots of birds, including rare Trumpeter Swans as well as Bald Eagles, Golden Eagles, Osprey, Western Grebes, Mountain Bluebirds, Pine Siskin, Sora, American Three-toed Woodpeckers, Red-naped Sapsucker, and Black-billed Magpies among many others. The butterflies and wildflowers were abundant!

Bighorn Sheep, Badlands National Park, SD

Chipmunk in the Black Hills, SD

Coyote near Jackson Hole, WY

American White Pelican, Grand Tetons, WY

Wildflower, Grand Tetons, WY

Elk in Yellowstone National Park, WY

Herd of Buffalo in Custer State Park, SD

Moose in Wyoming

Antelope in Custer State Park, SD

Black-billed Magpie, Jackson Hole, WY

Prairie Dog in Badlands National Park, SD

Parade of Peacocks

We had some visitors yesterday at our house in Coconut Grove. Peacocks! Nine of them! They chomped on our palm berries, drank from our patio plants, sunbathed on our roof, scared away the neighborhood cats, and pranced around our backyard.

Coconut Grove has had roaming flocks of peacocks for years. Rumor has it that a local couple brought pet peacocks to their home and the birds got loose. Our feathered friends multiplied and have been part of the neighborhood ever since.

Rally in Miami Beach Seeks Offshore Drilling Ban - Sierra Club warns BP "toxic brew" will spread

An activist with Surfrider Foundation protests offshore oil drilling.

Activists painted their bodies black to appear covered in oil and carried a symbolic oil slick in the form of a dark tarp across Miami Beach today at a rally to protest offshore oil drilling in the wake of the April 20th BP oil accident in the Gulf of Mexico.

Environmentalists, elected officials and business owners warned that the BP spill will be devastating to Florida's coastal ecosystem and wildlife and could spell doom for the tourism industry if the oil reaches South Florida's shores.

The 10 a.m. rally at Lummus Park was organized by the Sierra Club, Sufrider Foundation Miami Chapter and several other environmental organizations.

Florida State Sen. Dan Gelber (D-Miami Beach) urged support for a proposed constitutional amendment that would ban exploration, drilling, oil extraction and production up to ten miles off Florida's shores. "We do not want oil rigs near our shore," the senator said, with the sandy beach and sparkling Atlantic as a backdrop.

Recent reports indicate that the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico could reach South Florida's shores within weeks if winds push it into a loop ocean current that winds around the southern tip of the state. Miami Beach Commissioner Jerry Libbin said emergency management officials should be preparing a disaster management plan.

The damage, however, is already done, according to an attorney for the Sierra Club, Kent Harrison Robbins. He said the chemicals that BP oil giant is using to disperse the oil in the Gulf of Mexico is creating a "toxic brew" that will "kill, maim, and destroy marine mammals, plankton and coral reefs."

Miami Beach Commissioner Michael Gongora said he is angry. "We need to do what we can to prevent another tragedy like this from happening."

Among the business owners who called for measures to prevent offshore oil drilling was David Wallack, owner of Mango's Tropical Cafe, a popular South Beach nightspot. He said an oil slick on any of Florida's coasts would be more disruptive in the long term than any hurricane. "Now we're talking about cities that can be devastated not for days, weeks or months, but years," he said. Quoting singer Bob Dylan, Wallack said, "The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind."

As activists rallied on Miami Beach today, in Washington DC the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources held a hearing on offshore gas and oil development. Protests against BP are planned nationwide for tomorrow, Wednesday, by the Seize BP Campaign, which has begun a petition supporting the seizure of BP's assets to provide comprehensive compensation and relief for all affected people and for cleaning up the environment. A rally is scheduled for 6 p.m. Wednesday at the federal courthouse, Broward Blvd., Fort Lauderdale.