Category Archives: Animals

Mushrooms

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For the first time since we moved in here, we have large mushrooms growing in the front yard. They struggled to form a fairy ring, but couldn’t quite manage it.

They’re really big.

I don’t know if a toad could use it for a stool, but it might be handy as a parasol.

Georgia has a lot of mushrooms. A few are edible. Most are inedible. Some are poisonous. I would never pick a mushroom in the wild to eat. I just don’t know enough about them, and they aren’t really my favorite food anyway. Based on my limited research, these do not look like the edible mushrooms of Georgia.

I posted a photo of a turtle eating a mushroom. It looked somewhat like these, but I wouldn’t make a bet on it. I also wouldn’t eat a mushroom just because a turtle said it was safe.

A beautiful visitor

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This beauty stayed long enough for a few good shots on Monday.

As far as I can tell, it’s an Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, but I’m no expert. It was perched on the flowers of one of our crape myrtles.

Many of the butterflies of Georgia have names that are appropriately charming. A sampling of names: the Baltimore Checkerspot, Banded Hairstreak, Common Buckeye (a real beauty I have never seen), Coral Hairstreak, Diana Fritillary, Dreamy Duskywing, Falcate Orangetip, Fiery Skipper, Great Spangled Fritillary, Hackberry Emperor, Mourning Cloak, Pearl Crescent, Red-Spotted Purple Admiral, Sleepy Orange Sulfur, Zabulon Skipper, Zebra Longwing, and not the least, the Monarch.

Check here for photos.

“Fritillary” is a Eurasian plant of the lily family, with hanging bell-like flowers, or a butterfly with orange wings checkered with black. The word originates from the Latin for dice box. The flower and butterfly names apparently come from the checkered pattern, but I’m not sure I get the reference. “Falcate” means curved like a sickle, from the Latin for a sickle.

With the names of the butterflies being so appealing, the name for their study seems unfortunate: Lepidopterology, from the Greek “scale” and “wing.”

Slow turtles ahead

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We were on our way home from the vet’s office Tuesday (and that’s a story that you would thank me for not telling), when we saw this in the road.

A turtle, apparently not all that interested in actually crossing the road. I turned around and went back. It was all tucked inside its shell and not coming out. As I got closer to take this photo I realized just how big this thing was. I grabbed it about mid-shell. It peeked out but that was all.

Here’s a shot with my hand to give an idea of the scale.

I put the turtle in the weeds away from the edge of the road and we continued on. About a mile further down the road we saw another turtle. This one was considerably smaller, and not right in the middle of the road. By the time I turned around to go back, and then turned around again to get on the same side of the road, it was speeding in a turtle sort of way into the grass, so I didn’t have a chance to take a photo. And I didn’t have to rescue it either.

We haven’t seen any turtles on the road lately. Maybe the rain brought them out.

This won’t end well

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We have been seeing some small birds flying around our front steps for a while, and then we saw them flying up under the porch. They are building a nest on an electrical box from which a light hangs. It seems like a great spot, sheltered from the weather and well up off the ground. Unfortunately, two or three cats frequent that area, and one of them is a killer.

This is Chloe watching the bird perched on the bottom post of the stairs. Chloe is very interested. When the bird flew to the other side of the steps, Chloe’s head followed.

Chloe is not the real threat to the adult birds. That would be Sylvester. He is a natural born killer.

I had intended to check the nest, and tear it down if there were no eggs or baby birds, but I’m afraid I’ve waited too long. We know what is going to happen. If the adults escape Sylvester’s bloody mouth, the baby birds will fall prey to him, or Chloe or Dusty. Chloe and Dusty are not the killers that Sylvester is, but I don’t know a cat that can resist killing a baby bird on the ground. The killer might even end up being Mollie, since she goes out for a while every day. She has already brought one bird in, apparently to play with it. It was still alive. We opened a window and it flew out.

This is apparently a pair of white-breasted nuthatches. They are fairly common throughout almost the entire United States.

Turkeys on the road

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Returning from a doctor’s appointment (orthopedist — arthritic knees) on Monday afternoon, I had to stop for a parade.

I counted at least 19 here.

So why were these turkeys crossing the road? I have no idea. They wander. The real question was why did the last few of them seem to be so reluctant to follow the rest of them. As I pulled up to them, two stayed in my lane and kept looking back in the direction they had come from.

If you look carefully, you will see what they were watching. It’s close to the edge of the photo on the right. At first I thought it was a small turkey. Then I thought it was just a piece of wood or trash. Then I realized.

They were watching a cat. I couldn’t see it very well, but it looked like it might have been a tortoiseshell like Mollie. It turned and walked back into the woods as I passed.

Retreating was probably a good idea, no matter how hungry it might have been or how interested it was in chasing birds. These turkeys were bigger and heavier than the cat. I suspect it would not have fared well if it had attacked, although there seems to be some debate about whether a feral cat could kill a turkey.

This cat was probably dumped by someone and has been living in the woods down at the bottom of the mountain. We have seen cats that we assume are feral living along Huffaker Road, sometimes over periods of months, so they apparently can find enough game to stay alive. For this particular cat on this particular day, it was probably better for the cat not to try to have a turkey dinner.