Native Neighbors

I've talked about how much I enjoy the isolation of my house. From here I can't see the road or any neighbor's house. Well, at least not any human neighbor's house. But I spend a lot of time on the deck and the critters that wander by are amazing.

Here's a caterpillar who raises his head to present this caricature of a monster.









You can see, in profile, that what looks like eyes and mouth and are just spots and stripes.

I could spend some time online trying to identifying him. But I think he's looking for a place to pupate. So, I gave him a maple twig in a canning jar.

And sure enough. By the next day he had attached himself to the inside of the jar and shed his skin. I bet he'll emerge as a butterfly before I have a chance to research online and find who he is.



Among our other wild neighbors are lots and lots of birds. It seems early for the "confusing fall warblers." But I admit all warblers are confusing to me - as are most insect eating birds. If they don't sit on the seed feeder long enough for me to study them, I have trouble remembering them.


Anyway, it's a great hazard to our warbler neighbors and tourists that we have windows - and cats. I don't know what happens when we're not here watching, but last weekend, like last year around this time, we were there to protect a warbler who flew into a closed window.