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Category: Fitness, Health, Happiness

  • Maverick Elton, Backyard Naturalist (by Maverick) — Butterfly and Moth Edition


    Great Spangled Fritillary
    We saw this butterfly at my pop-pop’s farm, which is still in Pennsylvania but at the top. It is about 3 inches across, and you can see them from mid-May to October in moist open woods and meadows.

    Eastern Tiger Swallowtail
    This was in our backyard and it can be 4-6 inches from wingtip to wingtip. It can be seen from spring to October in forests and in open areas, even in cities.

    Red Admiral
    This was in our vegetable garden. It was about 2 inches across. You can see them spring to mid-summer at forest edges and meadows.

    Tiger Moth
    This is some sort of tiger moth, there are many different kinds. Most have hind wings that are reddish-orange and are about 1-1 1/2 inches across. They are attracted to bright lights, which is probably why this one was dead on our deck. You can see them spring to summer in fields and roadsides.

    Butterflies and moths are some of my favorites. I like their looks.

    I tried to videotape them, maybe I can show my video next week!

    What is your favorite type of butterfly?

    What plants do you have that get lots of butterflies?

  • Maverick Elton, Backyard Naturalist (by Maverick)

    Interesting Facts About Hummingbirds

    • Hummingbirds are the only birds that can hover in one spot and fly backwards and fly sideways.

    • Their wings beat up to 80 times a second and they can fly as fast as 65 mph.

    • They are as long as a baseball card.

    • They love to fight.

    • Their wings make a humming sound.

    • They make squeaky noises but do not sing.

    • Their nest is made from spider webs and plant parts. It is less than an inch across.

    • They love the color red. So if you want hummingbirds you should have a red feeder. If you wear red they will check you out and if you hold a red flower in your hand they might try to drink from it.

    • Your feeder should be one part sugar to four parts water. You should change the feeder water once every three days so it doesn’t get mold.

    • They have a very long forked tongue and they can lap up nectar 13 times a second.

    • These pictures are of Ruby-Throated Hummingbirds, these are the only kinds of hummingbirds in this area.

    • In Central and South America there are more than 300 kinds of hummingbirds.

    • The male Ruby-Throated Hummingbird’s throat looks black unless it is in the sun, then it looks orange-red. The female has a white throat.

    I like the hummingbirds. It is fun to watch them chase each other.

    Do you have hummingbird questions?

    • This is a female. My Pop-Pop took this picture at his house.

      I used these books:
      Why Don’t Woodpeckers Get Headaches: And Other Answers to Bird Questions You Know You Want to Ask
      National Geographic My First Pocket Guide Garden Birds
      National Audubon Society North America Birdfeeder Guide

  • Maverick Elton, Backyard Naturalist

    This week I found one bug one bird and one plant in my backyard to identify.

    This is not a bug, actually. It’s a Venusta Orchard Spider. Bugs have six legs and spiders have eight.

    It makes a web between flowers in our garden. The web is 11 inches across. It sticks to the underside of the web and waits for the bugs to get near and get stuck in the web. This means that my mom laid down under the web to take this picture!

    If you touch the web by accident it runs to the ropes that the web is built on. (Maverick is referring to the anchoring threads that the spider first puts down, called the frame threads.)

    We have lots of orchard spiders. I found thirteen in one walk around the yard.

    The body is about 1/4 of an inch and if you count the legs it is about an inch. This means it is a female because the male is smaller than that. 1/8 of an inch.

    This bird is an American Robin. We have lots of them too.

    They are black brown on top and orange red on the tummy.

    They are medium size. They are bigger than a hummingbird and smaller than a crow.

    They eat worms in our yard. They do not come to the feeder.
    Robin’s eggs are blue. We’ve seen them on the ground after they fell out of the nest.

    Robins can be found pretty much anywhere in the whole United States. When you see a robin that is supposed to mean spring is here, but we have them sometimes in winter too.

    This is called a wood strawberry. They are like wild strawberries except on wild strawberries the seeds are in pits and on a wood strawberry they are on the skin’s surface.

    Also on a wild strawberry the flowers are white but on a wood strawberry they are yellow.

    And wild strawberries are good to eat but wood strawberries are not! They are disgusting. But they are not poisonous.

    Wood strawberries are very small and grow in the grass.


    This is a flower that will turn into a wood strawberry.

    Websites I used:

    Spidersrule.com
    wildmanstevebrill.com

    (In the interest of full disclosure: Mav dictated this and I typed it because he hates typing. But he did all his own research.)