Chippewa Valley Butterfly Effect: Eau Claire home filled with bu - WQOW TV: Eau Claire, WI NEWS18 News, Weather, and Sports

Chippewa Valley Butterfly Effect: Eau Claire home filled with bu - WQOW TV: Eau Claire, WI NEWS18 News, Weather, and Sports

Once again, Jim has done a wonderful job explaining the native butterflies of Wisconsin!  Love the footage, too!  It documented the Butterfly House to a *T*!  Enjoy!  --LKR

Mom's Virág (Flowers)

Cabbage White with Cleome

When I think of flowers, my earliest memories are of my Grandmother, aunts, and cousins' colorful gardens. Like Hungarian needlepoint, vibrant colors were essential. I learned gardening through both of my parents when we moved to Chatham, New Jersey from a New York apartment and was taught how to put rose slips down. Some of those rose bushes still grow in my mother's yard and are nearly 40 years old!

Hydrangia

Red Hibiscus

Mom with Purple Coneflower

Tiger Swallowtail (and bee!) on Butterfly Bush

Pink Marsh Mallows

Because we didn't stay with my Mom, there was not much time to explore her gardens which are magnets for hummingbirds and butterflies. And shortly after these pictures were taken, it began to rain, thus ending the photo shoot! --LKR

It's Alive!

I've found it quite difficult to spend much time in our gardens, this year. To remedy this, I resolved to eat lunch being entertained by flora and fauna in one of our butterfly and hummingbird gardens.

Sounds good, huh? The problem with this is I can't sit still long enough to just enjoy watching. I'll spot a weed, and just have to pull it (along with the others that suddenly come into view). Or I'll find an interesting insect and observe it. One of my butterflies will inevitably come into sight, flitting from flower to flower, and I'll grab my camera and start shooting! --Oy!!!

Here are some shots I got, today.

A Milkweed bug dining on the nectar of phlox. They look like Boxelder bugs, don't they?!

This is a Silver-Spotted Skipper butterfly nectaring at Purple Bee Balm. These skippers are larger than most in their family. They have a long proboscis (straw-like tongue) which enable them to draw nectar from deeper-throated flowers.

--LKR

A Tick Trip

Hi, it's me, Mister Poochie!

Mom and I were out at Lowes Creek County Park, today. It was fun fun fun! As Mom pointed out, everything is coming back to life after a very long cold winter, it is. There were buds on trees and bushes, and plenty of green along some of the trails.

We saw a dragonfly, oh, and a mourning cloak butterfly! It took a liking to me and followed after us, it did! Mom said we were probably in its territory and was checking me out, it was.

On Ridgeline Trail, we saw a turkey, we did. It flew over the creek right toward us! I wanted to make nice to it, but Mom told me to "leave it", she did. I'm a good boy, so I left it, I did.

Mom decided to lead along a less traveled trail you need a machete to walk through during the summer months. This path follows along the water's edge before stopping at a bend in the winding creek. I got a nice long drink of cool cool water, I did, and splashed around. This was while Mom took pictures of what I thought were funny looking insects. I pulled her, and she pulled me. I need a longer leash, I do!

There were also lots and lots of deer tracks all over, there were. It must be a popular place for them to cross over to the other side, Mom said. I sniff sniff sniffed. No one I recognized, this time! I know many deer that come through our yard, I do--at least by scent!

Walking back to the trail we strayed from, Mom stopped to flick a tick from her shoulder. Then she looked down at her legs, she did. I did too, and uh oh! A steady stream of ticks was crawling up both her legs, they were! Quickly and calmly she flick flick flicked them off one by one. Through it all, she seemed strangely amused, she did, but that is Mom. I lost count after 30, I did. I would not want that many on me, oh no!

We went home and Mom started dinner, she did. Many times she stopped, plucked off, and drowned even more ticks. Mom later told Alpha she found a dozen more on her after we got home. Thankfully Mom only found two on me! --Mister Poochie

More Signs of Spring

Lovely crocus in greater numbers than the year before brighten the day!So far, the rabbits and deer have spared these tulips... !Mole and mice tunnels and holes are revealed after the snow and ice have melted.

Several of these little beetles were scurrying around on the ground throughout our yard. When I was younger, I used to love to play with them! Fess time: I still do!!!

A flock of geese flying up above. A raptor, probably a red-tailed hawk, was later flying around, too. Sandhill cranes also flew overhead, this afternoon! A few weeks ago when we were in Chicago, I saw a flock flying way up high as we were driving into the city.

This is the second hummer's nest in the three and a half years we've lived here that I've found in our low growing, fragrant mock orange bush. Mock orange is a super butterfly magnet in the spring, as are lilacs!

A very skinny robin in search of food among patches of snow.

--LKR