Stay Off the Menu

To the Virginian Tiger Moth on our front porch:

I remember last autumn, when you were a Yellow Wooly Bear caterpillar gorging on the plants in our flowerbed. Maybe you knew you'd be on a diet all winter. When your appetite was satisfied, you set out on the longest journey of your short life, trudging across the patio bricks with a purpose. You scaled the porch step, slogged across the porch, and climbed up the window frame all the way to the top.

There you found your perfect niche, and you constructed a fuzzy winter home.

This week, I noticed that the front of your dwelling had been opened, and that's when I saw you, 

pristine white, clothed in your miniature ermine coat. 

You probably thought you'd chosen a safe place to rest, but I have a warning for you. On rainy nights, the green tree frogs that you hear singing from the pond sneak up to the porch to dine on creatures like you who are attracted by the house lights.

It's raining tonight. But don't worry, we'll leave the lights off for you.


Linking with Saturday's Critters

Save My Plant

Do you remember the girl in the 90's who lived in a redwood tree for two years to save it from getting cut down? In our yard, all it takes to save a plant is one tree frog.

It's like this--tidy gardening has never been my forte; I'm often hesitant about pulling weeds. Please don't jump to the conclusion that I'm lazy; it's just that the perennial question nags at me: "could this be a flower?"

In the flower bed in front of the house, there is a four foot mystery plant, and it looks out of place--a slender stalk with leaves but no blossoms, a full foot taller than the others. Since we have company coming tomorrow, I finally took out my pruners. This was the day it was going down.

Then, just as I was positioned to make the fatal cut, I saw it. Poised on a leaf on the tall, silly plant, was one very cute tree frog.

Ce sempre domani. There's always tomorrow.

Linking with Saturday's Critters

First posted on 7/25/10

Spring Peeper Atop A Pepper

Hangin' Out

Tree Frog Blog

Don and I were talking yesterday about things we hadn't seen this year.  The Baltimore Orioles didn't swing by on their annual migration, and we've been seeing them in April for the past several years.  We've seen a few chipmunks this year, but not many, and the Carolina Wrens, who have been nesting on the front porch for a few years, have been not been seen or heard from.  Hummingbirds are few in number.  But what we've missed the most are the fawns.  Several does frequent the area around our house, and they have all obviously dropped their fawns, but we hadn't seen one yet.  And it's hard to wait.

In the meantime, there are other things that merit noticing.  Take tree frogs, for example.  Sunday morning, as I watered plants, I saw a small green tree frog on the Impatiens, about 5/8" long from nose to rump.  When I stooped to get a better look, I realized that I was only inches from a second frog, then a third hopped out from under the leaves, and a fourth.  I wondered just how many frogs might be hiding there, and I also wondered how long they've been there without me even noticing them.  So now I'm trying to pay more attention.  Yesterday morning there was at least 1 tree frog on the Geranium, and 2 on the Salvia, stacked on the leaves like passengers in the sleeping compartment of a train.

And then, before full light this morning, Don called me to the window and pointed to the field below.  There, running along at its mother's heels, was a tiny spotted fawn. The pair wasn't in sight more than a few minutes, but we decided, in that short span of time, that some things are definitely worth the wait.