Still Hung Up on Red

Back in January while walking the dogs along a path that passes through the site where a little eco resort used to be, I heard a vigorous tap, tap, tapping from up in a dead tree.  Searching in the tree canopy,  I was able to spot a flash of red and saw a lineated woodpecker busily working on what I thought might be a nest hole.  It was too obscured by foliage to get a photo, but you can see that the chips had been flying!

Wood chips on the ground.

I walk the dogs this way a couple of times a week and heard the woodpecker at work on several more occasions, with more chips collecting on the ground.  Then nothing - not another speck of wood, not a sound - until early March.  In March I saw and heard lineated woodpeckers making a grand commotion whenever I would pass by with one of the dogs.  I assumed they had an active nest and were busy with their young.  Finally on March 24th I saw this:

Two little woodpecker heads sticking out of the nest hole!

And a little later that morning when walking dog number 2, I saw a little woodpecker on the other side of the tree.  So there are at least two woodpecker chicks, maybe three.

Search for the spot of the red crest.

They are not easy to see with the phone camera images when they are up so high, but they made lots of noise and some odd almost purring sounds.  They looked ready to leave the nest and sure enough, there was no sign of them after that day.  I think I saw them as they were getting ready to fly.   It was a real treat to see that the parents had successfully raised their young.

In other red news, the tomatoes are coming in fast and furious.  The bags are keeping would-be tomato eaters away long enough for the fruits to ripen on the vine.  There is nothing like a just picked ripe tomato with a little sprinkle of salt.

Tomatoes and salad greens fresh from the garden.

Too many tomatoes to eat, so I made some quick sauce that I will freeze for later.  

Two pints of tomato sauce.  

More red-on-the-wing in the form of a butterly.

Finally, a variable cattleheart butterfly sat still long enough for me to get a decent shot of it.  Look at those ruby red spots along its body.

And the final bit of red for today's post is the flower of the prickly pear cactus.  Some species of Opuntia develop fruits that are large enough to eat, but ours don't get much past this stage.  The hummingbirds and butterflies love this flower.

Prickly pear flower

That's all the red for now.  Wishing you a colorful day.

The Destructive Power of Butterflies

Over the years, I have taken many photos of beautiful things at our place, including flowers and their various butterflies visitors. Lately we have seen hordes of variable cattleheart butterflies feasting on Pride of Barbados and verbena flowers.  They also go to cashew, hibiscus, sea grape, yellow alder, mango and almost any other flower.  Except they don't go to lily flowers.  The video below shows the butterfly action around Pride of Barbados flowers.

These Variable Cattlehearts are in the swallowtail family.  They are  mostly black with red spots along the rear edge of the hindwing and variable markings on the upper surface of the front wings.

Coincident with the uptick in butterfly numbers, I noticed that our normally lush crinum lilies (the strong smelling lilies, Roy!) looking pretty sad.

Crinum lily plants last August, looking robust and bearing many flowers.

Crinum lily plants yesterday - they look like they are melting.

The lily plants were covered in caterpillars of the Variable Cattleheart butterfly.

The caterpillars chomp along the leaf surface like a combine harvesting hay and spitting bales of poop in their wake.

This individual is pretty fat and may soon be ready to make a chrysalis.

I think the lilies will survive the onslaught; they have large bulbs similar to an amaryllis lily.  Although they look pretty rough right now, we will trim off the damaged leaves once the caterpillars are done and hopefully new leaves will emerge soon.  In the meantime we will enjoy the adult butterflies as they swarm the flowers and flit about in the sunshine.  We will also try to forgive them their destructive nature; they really can't help it.