Ten Blue Jays in a family or "attack squadron" in the Backyard are being trained to feed in formation each morning from the Oak Tree to a peanut landing deck. These videos taken over two days show their progress so far - not exactly military flight precision, but they are getting the hang of it. Typically the first four or five hit their marks with the precision of Navy pilots making carrier landings and then things tend to break into chaos a bit - and a few impressive interlopers even join in!
The "Ride of the Valkyries" (German: Walkürenritt or Ritt der Walküren) is the popular term for the beginning of act 3 of Die Walküre, the second of the four operas by Richard Wagner that constitute Der Ring des Nibelungen that is perfect for this video. As a separate piece, the "Ride" is often heard in a purely instrumental version, which may be as short as three minutes. Together with the "Bridal Chorus" from Lohengrin, the Ride of the Valkyries is one of Wagner's best-known pieces. Courtesy of the YouTube audio library.
Large flock of hungry Robins arrive in Florida for Winter and eat Brazilian Pepper Berries as fast as they can. These robin flocks look for ripe fruit and berries and when its exhausted move on - they usually return north in March or April although a few sometimes linger into summer. A lone Cedar Waxwing is mixed in with the flock!
Purple Grackles and Blue Jays are not going to share the bird seed - period! The arrival of the iridescent Purple Grackles - a subspecies of common Grackle has seriously cramped the Blue Jay's style. A Purple Grackle announces he's the new songbird king of the Backyard - that's not going to go over to well with the resident Blue Jays! If you have never seen a Purple Grackle up close - they are quite beautiful and striking birds with their sharp yellow/black eyes and black, purple, green, brown, and blue iridescent feathers depending on how the light strikes them.
Large flock of White Pelicans spending the winter in Florida. Huge birds with greater than 10 foot wingspans - they are one of the largest birds in North America. Graceful gliding in formation in flight and swimming on water - they are amazing birds to spend time with. Watch for a special appearance by an endangered West Indian Manatee!
Painted Bunting mature males - the birds without equal - the most colorful songbirds in North America - have been arriving in Florida in larger numbers now that the weather has turned quite cold up north. These birds stay in very heavy brush cover and only venture out to feeders. You will notice that despite their bright garish coloration they are surprisingly hard to see in dense cover.
Celebrate Squirrel Appreciation Day - January 21st !
Wednesday January 21st, 2016 is Squirrel Appreciation Day! Squirrels have a number of admirable qualities, not the least of which is obvious intelligence (have you ever tried to outsmart one, it's a humbling experience), dedication to family and raising their young, strength and agility, perseverance, a natural instinct to show off and entertain, plant trees, and a certain irresistible cuteness, especially young Red Squirrels. Squirrels are a great species to introduce children to wildlife and to learn to interact with and appreciate the natural world right in your own yard. Start observing the squirrels in your environment and you'll be amazed at the things they do. Just a sample of the many squirrel pictures and videos taken in the yard are found below. My personal favorites are the Red Squirrels - check out the Red Squirrel Playlist !
Celebrate Monday by buying a bag ofunsaltedroasted peanuts in the shell - take a break from the daily grind and go out in the backyard or the park and feed the squirrels. In colder climates this is the time of winter when they could use a little help as well as the birds.
A little motivation message from the animal kingdom. This little Red Squirrel is inspiring - the picture of determination. The task seems insurmountable, but it assesses the situation, takes a deep breath and gets on with it. Nothing like a "tough nut to crack" to challenge you! Its hard work will pay dividends down the road. The full version of this is at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ld9OQgOUOdk
Amazing contact calls from female inside the nest box to male outside almost like telegraph Morse Code. Eastern Screech owl mating and contact sounds are in full swing and the first egg should appear any day. Mother Red Morph Eastern Screech Owl has moved into the nest box full-time and makes some unusual lengthy contact calls to Mr. Owl who is starting to bring her food in the nest box. You will not need to turn up the volume - these calls are loud!
The three baby squirrels raised in a woodpecker nest box and transferred to a nest high in an Oak tree have now left the nest and are out on their own as part of the Backyard society - all safe and healthy. Gray Squirrels typically are not totally weaned and depart their nest until they are almost as big as adult squirrels. You can tell by their behavior they are quite tentative.
The playlist of the Baby Squirrels Raised in a Woodpecker Nest Box is at:
The story of three infant Gray Squirrels who were delivered in a Woodpecker Nest box in October 2015 in the backyard. Many hours of recorded and live broadcasts document these precious creatures and the amazing way they interact with each other and their mother. Some of the most precious babies in Nature!
Little Blue Heron's extreme concentration and quick strike pays off with a tasty shrimp meal. Up close slow motion shows how they cock their neck and use it like a spring to strike at prey amazingly fast. Much smaller than the Great Blue Heron - hence its name - the Little Blue Heron is a species of special concern in Florida.
Description: Medium-sized heron, with purplish to maroon-brown head and neck; small white patch on throat and upper neck; and slate-blue body. Bill is black towards tip, especially during breeding season, with the other exposed areas on the head appearing dark gray to cobalt blue. Legs are grayish to green, becoming black in breeding season. Immature birds are mostly white with pale slate gray tips on primary wing feathers. Legs of young birds are yellowish green.
Habitat: Feeds in shallow freshwater, brackish, and saltwater habitats. Largest nesting colonies occur in coastal areas, but prefers foraging in freshwater lakes, marshes, swamps, and streams. Nests in a variety of woody vegetation types, including cypress, willow, maple, black mangrove, and cabbage palm. Usually breeds in mixed-species colonies in flooded vegetation or on islands.
Seasonal Occurrence: Mostly resident throughout year, but numbers in north Florida in winter are lower than numbers during spring, summer, and fall; becoming less abundant in Florida Keys.
Florida Distribution: Most recent population estimate is approximately 17,000 birds distributed among 240+ breeding colonies. Colonies are found nearly statewide, except rare in western panhandle and southern Florida Keys.
Range-wide Distribution: Breeds from Kansas, Missouri, and Tennessee to coastal Maine and south to Peru and central Brazil; range extends west to southern California and Sonora; winter range includes these areas and north to coastal Virginia; may wander to Canada after breeding season.
Conservation Status: Because the little blue heron lacks the showy
plumes found on many other herons and egrets, this species did not suffer as much during the plume-hunting trade a century ago. Primary threats are alteration of natural hydroperiods in wetlands used for foraging and exposure to pesticides and heavy metal contamination. Population trends are downward, and breeding colonies have become smaller and more numerous. Illegal killings may occur since this species regularly forages at commercial fish farms and hatcheries. Long-term studies are needed on the
possible adverse effects of cattle egrets, environmental contamination, and other threats. Protection and Management: Protect breeding and foraging habitats through establishment of preserves and regulation of wetlands. Restore and maintain natural hydroperiods in degraded wetland areas. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and the Department of
Environmental Protection have developed setback distances around wading bird colonies of 330 ft. (100 m) to prevent human disturbance.
Beautiful mating pair of Great Blue Herons building their nest in central Florida. The largest Heron in North America standing over 4 feet tall - they are always exciting to capture especially in their spectacular breeding/mating plumage. This early stage of nest building the male brings small sticks to the female to build the base and they spend a lot of time, as in this video, bonding!
Male Great Blue Herons collect much of the nest material, gathering sticks from the ground and nearby shrubs and trees, and from unguarded and abandoned nests, and presenting them to the female. She weaves a platform and a saucer-shaped nest cup, lining it with pine needles, moss, reeds, dry grass, mangrove leaves, or small twigs. Nest building can take from 3 days up to 2 weeks; the finished nest can range from a simple platform measuring 20 inches across to more elaborate structures used over multiple years, reaching 4 feet across and nearly 3.5 feet deep. Ground-nesting herons use vegetation such as salt grass to form the nest.
Great Blue Herons nest mainly in trees, but will also nest on the ground, on bushes, in mangroves, and on structures such as duck blinds, channel markers, or artificial nest platforms. Males arrive at the colony and settle on nest sites; from there, they court passing females. Colonies can consist of 500 or more individual nests, with multiple nests per tree built 100 or more feet off the ground.
Nesting Facts
Clutch Size 2–6 eggs
Number of Broods 1-2 broods
Egg Length 2.4–3 in
Egg Width 1.8–2 in
Incubation Period 27–29 days
Nestling Period 49–81 days
Egg Description Pale blue, fading slightly with age.
Condition at Hatching Bluish eyes open, chick covered in pale gray down, able to vocalize.
Female Yellow Bellied Sapsucker woodpecker pecking rapidly on a tree for several minutes an a very windy day. This was a first time capture behind the backyard - I have never seen this colorful woodpecker around here before, although I've seen there many holes in some trees in area forests. On a walk through the forest you might spot rows of shallow holes in tree bark. In the Eastern U.S., this is the work of the Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, an enterprising woodpecker that laps up the leaking sap and any trapped insects with its specialized, brush-tipped tongue. Attired sharply in barred black-and-white, with a red cap and (in males) throat, they sit still on tree trunks for long intervals while feeding. To find one, listen for their loud mewing calls or stuttered drumming. Music with a wood-related them is provided by:
Danger of disturbing a fire ants mound mini-documentary. It's not the big red imported fire ant mounds that will get you - those are obviously avoided - its the small fire ant colonies migrating to start a new colony that will catch people by surprise and put the bite on. These migrating ants are exceptionally aggressive and will bite like crazy. This often happens after a number of mounds are treated with poison bait and the survivors move to start new colonies. You just barely have to touch these new nest (not yet a mound) to gets hundreds of ants swarming almost immediately.
Video of fire ant colony on the move in the Florida Backyard:
Thousands of dead fish washed ashore along a few East Central Florida Beaches overnight on December 21st. The dead fish were mostly Thread Herring and were causing quite a stench and sickening a few birds - notably a young Northern Gannet in a bit of stupor. Hundreds of gulls and other birds were drawn to the scene, but hardly any appeared to be eating the fish, perhaps sensing that something was wrong and they may be toxic. Large fish kills have been reported for the last few weeks around Florida perhaps due to toxic algae blooms. Tests were taken of this fish kill and results will be announced within a week. I can say the general "ambiance" caused eyes to water and was generally uncomfortable. It will take some time for nature to clean up the mess and with near record Christmas heat the 1000's of dead fish left on the high tide line will be quite a sensory overload!
Beautiful Tricolored Heron (Louisiana Heron) feeding or foraging in a variety of habitats. Much smaller than the Great Blue Heron.
On the southeastern coastal plain, the Tricolored Heron is a characteristic bird of quiet shallow waters. Strikingly slender, with long bill, neck, and legs, it is often seen wading belly-deep in coastal lagoons. Although it is solitary in its feeding, it is sociable in nesting, often in very large colonies with various other herons and egrets. Formerly known as Louisiana Heron.
A species of special concern in Florida: Most nesting colonies occur on mangrove islands or in willow thickets in fresh water, but nesting sites include other woody thickets on islands or over standing water. Prefers coastal environments. Feeds in a
variety of permanently and seasonally flooded wetlands, mangrove swamps, tidal creeks, ditches, and edges of ponds and lakes. Seasonal variation in water levels are particularly critical to nesting success, so alteration of wetlands used during breeding season can have negative consequences.
Forages in shallow water by standing still and waiting for prey to approach, or by walking very slowly; sometimes more active, stirring bottom sediments with one foot, or dashing in pursuit of schools of fish. Solitary in foraging, driving away others from small "feeding territory."
Diet
Mostly fish. Eats mainly small fish of no economic value, also crustaceans (crayfish, prawns), insects (aquatic insects and grasshoppers), tadpoles, frogs, salamanders, lizards, spiders.
The Wood Stork is the only species of stork that breeds in the U.S. This large bird is protected as a Threatened species by the Federal Endangered Species Act.
The wood stork is a large, long legged wading bird that reaches a length of 35-45 inches with a wingspan of 60-65 inches ). The primary and tail feathers are black . The head and upper neck of adult wood storks have no feathers, but have gray rough scaly skin. Wood storks also have a black bill and black legs with pink toes. Adult wood storks are voiceless and are capable of only making hissing sounds.
Life History
Wood storks feed on small to medium-sized fish, crayfish, amphibians, and reptiles. Their hunting technique is unique as they will move their partially opened bill through water, snapping up prey when the prey comes in contact with the bill.
The wood stork is the only species of stork that breeds in the U.S.. Wood storks are very social in nesting habitats, as they are often seen nesting in large colonies of 100-500 nests. Colonies in South Florida form late November to early March, while wood storks in Central and North Florida form colonies from February to March . After copulation, males begin gathering twigs for constructing nests . Wood stork nests are primarily built in trees that stand in water (U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service 1999). In Florida, wood storks are capable of laying eggs from October to June. Females lay a single clutch of two to five eggs per season . The average incubation period is 30 days, with young wood storks able to fly 10-12 weeks after hatching .
Habitat and Distribution
WoodStork Distribution MapWood storks nest in mixed hardwood swamps, sloughs, mangroves, and cypress domes/strands in Florida . They forage in a variety of wetlands including both freshwater and estuarine marshes, although limited to depths less than 10-12 inches. The wood stork breeds in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina. Non-breeding wood storks have an extensive range throughout North America, to northern Argentina in South America .
Threats:
The South Florida population has collapsed due to agricultural expansions and altered hydrocycles . Wood storks need normal flooding to increase prey population with a natural drawdown to concentrate prey in one area. Successful breeding depends on normal hydrocycles. The drainage of cypress stands prevents the wood stork from nesting, and promotes predation from raccoons .
Conservation and Management
The wood stork is protected by the U.S. Migratory Bird Treaty Act. It is also protected as a Threatened species by the Federal Endangered Species Act and as a Federally-designated Threatened species by Florida’s Endangered and Threatened Species Rule. The wood stork was reclassified by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on June 30, 2014, from Endangered to Threatened. Source:
A beautiful Red Shouldered Hawk has caught a Black Racer Snake and proceeds to eat it on a dead pine branch in the Backyard. Hawks sit on fences and watch for young snakes active in the daytime - not only are they easy to catch, but they are like tender gourmet food for the hawks.
The Red-shouldered Hawk is one of the most beautiful and distinctively marked hawks in North America. Adults are barred with rusty-red on the underparts and have bright rufous shoulders. Their underparts are dark brown, and the tail is black with 4 or 5 narrow white bands. When in flight, pale crescents in the wings are visible from below. They breed from northern California south to Baja, in the Midwestern United States east to New Brunswick; and south to the Florida Keys and Texas. Habitat. In Florida, Red-Shouldered Hawks nest in a wide variety of woodland habitats, but they are particularly identified with cypress swamps and river bottomlands. It most frequently still-hunts from a relatively low, inconspicuous perch but may also forage from a low, coursing flight (Palmer 1988; Johnsgard 1990). Its diet is characterized by sluggish, easily captured animals, such as toads, frogs, snakes, rodents, and small birds and their nestlings (Kimmel and Frederickson 1981, Palmer 1988, Kale and Maehr 1990). Typical nest sites are located in large mature trees with good canopy cover. A bulky well-built nest is usually placed a little more than halfway up the tree in a major fork (Kimmel and Frederickson 1981, Bednarz and Dinsmore 1982, Palmer 1988). Usually two whitish eggs marked with brown are laid and incubated for approximately 33 days. The young birds fledge at 40 to 45 days of age (Palmer 1988; Johnsgard 1990). Seasonal Occurrence. In Florida, Red-shouldered Hawks breed from January through May (Kale and Maehr 1990), or through June (B. Millsap, pers. commun.). Most birds reside in Florida, but the states' population is augmented in September and October by fall migrants from northern states.
Gray Squirrels urine mark profusely over four days on a wooden tabletop in the Backyard which has become a new territorial boundary marker. Setting up a camera trap for Blue Jays I have been training resulted in an unexpected amazing discovery of just how much territory marking Gray Squirrels do - and how critical their sense of smell is to communication. You will learn perhaps more than you ever wanted to know about how Gray Squirrels use their sense of smell to communicate. The large oak tree seen in the background of all the videos has been their traditional territorial boundary marker - but after the wooden table was in the Backyard for about a week for the Blue Jays the Gray Squirrels apparently adopted it as a new key position marker and checkpoint in their territorial geography database. Watch in amazement - BTW this is not just a male thing - the females can mark with the best of them!
Squirrels mark territory with scent and may actively defend that territory in direct interactions. Gray squirrels have two main scent marking tools, urine and scent glands near the mouth. They will frequently urinate as they move along travel routes and they often stop and rub their oral scent glands as well. When two squirrels meet they will greet each other by sniffing these oral scent glands, sometimes placing their hands on the other squirrels shoulders, which gives the appearance of kissing and hugging and has given rise to many a novelty greeting card photo.
The second main territorial marking method gray squirrels is chewing a large vertical stripe on a large dominant tree in their territory and using this visual marking as a scent marking post. All squirrels passing by this stripe will stop and smell who has been around and add marks of their own. These marks are often maintained for generations (squirrel generations that is).
Large Portuguese Man o' War wash up on Florida Beaches - a scallop shell for scale.
Portuguese man o' war invades Florida Beaches. Steady east winds have driven them onshore east central Florida since late December and into the New Year. The Atlantic Portuguese man o' war, also known as the Man-of-war, bluebottle, or floating terror, has venomous tentacles and can deliver a painful sting. If they are on the beaches one can assume they are in the water and hundreds of people have been reported stung! I took this photograph on December 31st.
Strong winds may drive them into bays or onto beaches. Often the finding of a single Portuguese man o' war results in the finding of many others in the vicinity. They must be treated with caution, and the discovery of a man o' war washed up on a beach may lead to the closure of the whole beach. The Atlantic Portuguese man o' war (Physalia physalis), also known as the Man-of-war, bluebottle, or floating terror, is a marine cnidarian of the family Physaliidae. Its venomous tentacles can deliver a painful sting. Despite its outward appearance, the Portuguese man o' war is not a common jellyfish but a siphonophore, which is not actually a single multicellular organism, but a colony of specialized minute individuals called zooids. These zooids are attached to one another and physiologically integrated to the extent that they are incapable of independent survival. The name "man o' war" comes from the man-of-war, an 18th-century armed sailing ship, and the cnidarian's supposed resemblance to the Portuguese version at full sail. In other languages it is simply known as the 'Portuguese war-ship' (Dutch: portugees oorlogsschip, Swedish: portugisisk örlogsman, Norwegian: portugisisk krigsskip, Finnish: portugalinsotalaiva), the 'Portuguese galley' (German: portugiesische Galeere, Hungarian: portugál gálya), the 'Portuguese caravel' (Portuguese: caravela portuguesa, Spanish: carabela portuguesa, Italian: caravella portoghese), or the 'Portuguese little boat' (Russian: португальский кораблик). The Atlantic Portuguese man o' war lives at the surface of the ocean. The gas-filled bladder, or pneumatophore, remains at the surface, while the remainder is submerged. Since the Portuguese man o' war has no means of propulsion, it is moved by a combination of winds, currents, and tides. Although it is most commonly found in the open ocean in tropical and subtropical regions, it has been found as far north as the Bay of Fundy and the Hebrides. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portuguese_man_o%27_war
Close-up of a large Florida Armadillo hunting for insects. I find them cute, especially their ears! Backyard Armadillos are always nocturnal - this one was along a canal bank in the afternoon and so focused on hunting in the grass that it didn't notice me standing right above it with the camera until it almost bumped into me - they have really poor eyesight.
Approximately 20 species of armadillo exist, but the nine-banded is the only one found in the United States. The term “armadillo” means “little armored one,” and refers to the presence of bony, armor-like plates covering their body. Despite their name, nine-banded armadillos can have 7 to 11 bands on their armor. There is a common misconception that nine-banded armadillos can roll up into spherical balls. In reality, only two species of armadillo (both three-banded) roll up completely.
Size: Nine-banded armadillos are about 2.5 feet long from the nose to the tip of the tail and weigh an average of 12 pounds.
Diet: They are generalist feeders and use their sense of smell to track down almost 500 different foods, most of which are insects and invertebrates such as beetles, cockroaches, wasps, yellow jackets, fire ants, scorpions, spiders, snails, and white grubs. A lesser part of the diet is comprised of small reptiles and amphibians and mammal, reptile, and bird eggs. Less than 10 percent of the diet is from fruit, seeds, fungi, and other plant matter.
Typical Lifespan: Nine-banded armadillos typically live from 7 to 20 years in the wild. One captive armadillo lived 23 years.
Habitat: They prefer warm, wet climates and live in forested or grassland habitats. Small streams are no obstacle for these amazing animals! The nine-banded can hold its breath for up to six minutes and can swim or “walk” along the bottom of rivers. Their abandoned burrows are utilized by other animals, such as pine snakes, rabbits, opossums, mink, cotton rats, striped skunks, burrowing owls, and eastern indigo snakes.
Range: Nine-banded armadillos are found in the southeastern United States, but their range has been expanding continually northward for over one hundred years. A few have even been spotted as far north as Illinois and Nebraska! Armadillos have not yet reached the full extent of their possible range, which one study has predicted may reach as far north as Massachusetts. Climate warming caused by increasing carbon in the atmosphere will further expand their potential range.
Life History and Reproduction: Nine-banded armadillos almost always give birth to four identical quadruplets. At birth, the carapace of the offspring has not yet hardened and the unprotected young are extremely vulnerable to predation.
Armor helps to protect armadillos from predators such as pumas, black bears, and alligators. Nine-banded armadillos are nocturnal, and spend their waking time burrowing or feeding. They often have a bad reputation due to the fact that they are the only animal other than humans that can contract leprosy, but cases of humans getting leprosy by handling armadillos are extremely rare.
Fun Fact:
Armadillos have long been a source of food for humans. The nine-banded was nicknamed “Hoover hog” and “poor man’s pork” by people who blamed President Hoover for the Great Depression.
Conservation Status: Increasing. Humans have killed off most of their natural predators, and roadways have offered them easier means of travel to new habitats. Nine-banded armadillos have a tendency to jump straight up into the air when they are startled. This often leads to their demise on highways. They are small enough that cars can pass right over them, but they leap up and hit the undercarriage of vehicles. They are also poisoned, shot, or captured by people that consider them lawn and agricultural pests. Some are eaten or used for the curio trade.
The Anhinga or snakebird swims with just its head and neck above water and looks somewhat like a snake - and when wet and just out of the water it looks rather dark and unexciting, but when this magnificent bird perches to dry and clean its feathers in the sun its stunning beauty can be fully appreciated. One of the most spectacular birds to ever grace the area behind the Backyard it is generally only found in Florida and the immediate Gulf Coast of the USA in winter. The anhinga (/ænˈhɪŋɡə/; Anhinga anhinga), sometimes called snakebird, darter, American darter, or water turkey, is a water bird of the warmer parts of the Americas. The word anhinga comes from the Brazilian Tupi language and means devil bird or snake bird. When swimming the origin of the name snakebird is apparent: only the colored neck appears above water so the bird looks like a snake ready to strike. They do not have external nares (nostrils) and breathe solely through their epiglottis.
The anhinga is placed in the darter family, Anhingidae, and is closely related to Indian (Anhinga melanogaster), African (A. rufa), and Australian (A. novaehollandiae) darters. Like other darters, the anhinga hunts by spearing fishes and other small prey using its sharp, slender beak.
Flock of wild or feral Monk Parakeets also called Quaker Parrots feeding on wild fruit along a canal on a cool windy day. Hardy, introduced birds they can survive even much further north than Florida. In past years wild or feral Blue Crowned Conures have visited the Backyard: https://youtu.be/Lau6U10vCPo
The Monk Parakeet (Myiopsitta monachus) is a member of the parrot family (Psittacidae). Unlike most members of the parrot family, which eat mostly seeds and nest in cavities (such as tree holes), Monk Parakeets also eat a variety of fruits and are the only parrot species that builds nests out of sticks.
Monk Parakeets are small to medium-sized parrots, approximately 12 inches long (29 cm) with a wingspan of 20 inches (53 cm) and weigh 3–4 ounces (90–120 g). These small parrots are brightly colored (Fig. 1); their thick beaks are yellow-brown, their backs (including the backs of their heads) and tails are bright green, and their flight feathers are blue to bluish-black. In contrast, their faces, throats, chests, and legs are pale gray. The plumage of Monk Parakeets is similar in both sexes throughout the year; juveniles may be brighter green. Monk Parakeets are noisy birds whose calls have been described as metallic, rasping squawks and screams.
In the 1960s, Monk Parakeets became extremely popular in the pet trade, and by the end of the decade United States' imports had increased to more than 16,000 Monk Parakeets per year! Reports of free-ranging individuals date back to the 1960s, when wild Monk Parakeets were reported from cities across the country. Many of these birds are believed to have escaped from damaged shipping crates, whereas others accidentally escaped from their owners or from zoos, or were intentionally released. Monk Parakeets were first documented nesting in Florida in 1969.
Male Queen Butterfly (Danaus gilippus) with the two dark upper wing spots - or pheromone scales. Queen butterflies are cousins of Monarch butterflies and similar to Soldier Butterflies. The Queen's are year-round residents of Florida, but my experience has been they are not that common to see and equally as beautiful as the Monarchs. Both use milkweed (Asclepias species) as host plants.
Queen butterflies are not like ants and termites, the ones that lay the eggs. ‘Queen’ is simply the name of this species of butterfly. There are both male and female Queen butterflies. Like Monarchs, male Queens have a black spot on each hindwing. These black dots are pheromone scales. Although Monarch butterflies do not use pheromones during courtship and mating, Queen butterflies do use pheromones.
