Great Blue Heron

Great B

lue Heron seem to be scarce this summer.  This is the only picture of a Great Blue Heron that I have been able to get a picture of this summer.

A Young Male Ruby throated Hummingbird for Saturday Critters

Earlier this week I was watching several hummingbirds feeding at our feeders.  I knew a few of the birds must be newly hatched this year as thier numbers had increased.  I decided ro take some pictures and I noticed a few of the humminbirds had small flecks of red

 at their throats.  I wondered if these birds might be young males?

I decided to see what information I could find online about the full red throat of a male Ruby throated Hummingbirdhummingbird.  I found an informative site at:http://www.rubythroat.org/rthuexternalmain.html#anchor1053301
I discovered that an young male hummingbird does not get a full throat or gorget of red until their first winter.  However near their first summer's end  a young male may start to show  one to several red feathers at its throat.  Ah ha!!  So that is what I had seen with the small flecks of red at their throats They were young male hummingbirds..  I love making small discoveries like this and I decided to share this information today on Eleen's Saturday Critters which can be found at viewingnaturewitheileen.blogspot,ca
A Happy weekend and happy natureviewing to everyone folks!

metamorphosis

Just a visual recap of our new Monarch that emerged from its chrysalis yesterday. We had found he caterpillar on July 24th, and we brought it home and put it in a small plastic cage. On July 27th the caterpillar entered into its chrysalis stage. , On August 5th the adult Monarch left the chrysalis and lay with open wings at the bottom of the cage, as its wings dried and stiffened we set the butterfly free by placing it on a leaf of a milkweed plant, after being there for a few moments it flew away

Update on caterpillar metamorphosis

It has been nine days now since the Monarch Butterfly Caterpillar has been in its chrysalis. This morning I was able to see a bit of colour of the adult Monarch butterfly. within its chrysalis. It will just be a couple of days now until the fully develop butterfly emerges! It is an Amazing! process to observe! It was difficult to get a good picture as I had to insert the camera in through the top of the cage, but you can see the colourful development  of the adult Monarch along the sides of the chrysalis!

Red foxes for Saturday Critters

I often find foxes at the lagoon area of my community.  One morning this week I had found two!

The goldenrod in the background dates this picture to be early in August as there is an abundance of goldenrod in the fields and meadows round about.

I was in my car while taking these pictures and consider myself really lucky to get the picture below of one of the foxes with its mouth open with its tongue curled up to the right side of its mouth.

I am linking today to Eileen's Saturday Critters which can be found at viewingnaturewitheileen.blogspot.ca 

Have a wonderful weekend everybody. 

 Hopefully the temperatures are cool wherever you are.

Another Monarch Butterfly on the way!

On Monday, July 30th I found another Monarch Butterfly caterpillar.  It was much bigger than the previous one that I had had, which is now in its chrysalis stage.  This new caterpillar was quite thick ( fat) and long! In the picture below of this caterpillar in the cage it reminds me of a little tiger!

Because of its size we assumed that it wouldn't stay long in its caterpillar stage.we were right as the next day, July 31st. we watched while it climber to the top of the cage

Once at the top it attached itself to the cage top and was soon hanging downward in an "J" shape.

When I got up this morning it was still hanging in its J shape, however I was in for a surprise for while I drank my first cup of coffee it had changed into its next stage, that of a shiny green chrysalis.

So I can expect to see an adult Monarch butterfly to emerge from the chrysalis in ten days time@  How MAGICAL and AMAZING  it all is!