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Medicine in Our Back Yard

Posted by Gary on June 28, 2012 in Wildflowers

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We are fortunate to live in a community where the developer had an environmental conscience and designed the place in such a way that the lakeshore remained undeveloped and that some of the woodlands were left intact.

While walking along the edge of these woodlands, Anne and I saw an unusual looking flower that, to me, reminded me of a cartoon sun designed by artists in the 1960s. To say the flower was beautiful is an understatement, it was exquisite. It is part of a vine that climbs other plants including elderberry and the tall grasses here.

Christian missionaries coming to South America in the 16th century named this plant – Passion Flower – because the anatomy of the flower looks like the crown of thorns worn by Jesus in the crucifixion.

But what is interesting about this plant is that it has a history of medicinal uses. This plant historically treated a variety of medical onditions including anxiety, insomnia, seizures and high blood pressure. Basically there is a chemical in the plant that makes you feel more relaxed. It is still an ingredient in herbal remedies today.

There are other wildflowers in these woodlands including goldenrod and members of the mint family and many of these plants also have either medicinal uses or applications in the kitchen. More will be highlighted on this site in the future.

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Our Carolina Wren Family

Posted by Gary on June 25, 2012 in Birds of the Field and Forest

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Anne opens the back door to put seeds in the bird feeder and flushes a couple of little brown fuzzy feathered birds that hop, run and barely fly away. It is a gray day with threat of showers and thunderstorms. After she comes back into the house, I watch intently to see if the tiny birds return.

I see one under the bird feeder. I can tell it is a fledgling because it still has tufts of down sticking out of its feathered head and body, and a yellow lipstick beak.  I’m not sure what kind it is at first, but suddenly on the fence above it dad calls with a quick, short whistle. It is the normally shy, Carolina wren.  Mom appears on the top of the fence, looks around and drops to the ground; the chick opens its mouth wide to accept a small caterpillar.

I watch the adults to see where they go so I can find the rest of the family. There is a second baby under a nearby bush that they bring food to.  Dad perches on the fence about 10 feet away from the first chick and I scour the ground under him for the rest of the family. I find four more huddling together on pine needles; all are dozing except for one that watches for the parents to return with food.

Mom and dad glean insects from the nearby trees, shrubs and from the ground to feed the youngsters. Occasionally, they fly to the feeder to pick out a small seed to serve to the fledglings. Eventually all six chicks huddle together and take turns accepting food from the parents.

As night falls, Anne points to the backyard window where there is something fluttering against it. I open the door to see that one of the fledglings seems lost and insists on flying into the window. A light rain is falling now so I decide to place it in a ceramic feeder that has two large openings. At least here it will be out of the rain. When I go to check on it a few minutes later it is gone, but out of the corner of my eye I see one of the adults fly out from under our barbecue grill.

I guess the family is taking shelter there for the night and I look forward to seeing them again.

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Restless Caterpillars

Posted by Gary on June 22, 2012 in Insects

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Each morning Anne scours the milkweed plants for her monarch caterpillars. We know that some of them are large enough to go through the next stage of their life cycle when they transform from larvae to pupa to adult.

Some caterpillars have gone astray and Anne enlists my services to help her find them. Knowing that the caterpillars wander to find a safe place undergo transformation, we expand our search and sure enough, 50 feet from the milkweed patch on the side of our house and three feet from the ground, we find two where two caterpillars formed a pupa called a chrysalis. We discover another chrysalis hanging from the bottom of our bird bath.

I come across a caterpillar dangling from the bottom of our windowsill in the letter “J” shape. Its colors darken and it twitches occasionally as if it is in pain. After a half an hour, there is a rhythmic movement on its upper body that becomes more intense as the minutes pass by. Suddenly, it drops its head down. “Anne,” I call, “Something is about to happen.” Anne joins me and we gaze at this amazing show.

The caterpillar continues to contort and a slit in its skin opens up just behind its head exposing the spring green skin underneath. The creature writhes causing the outer skin to roll inside out off the caterpillars head and up to where it is attached to the ledge. This exposes more of the shiny light green chrysalis. The skin, shriveled, falls to the ground. The chrysalis gyrates and contracts for about a minute and then tranquility comes over it and it hangs motionless.

We hope that the chrysalis will survive and look forward to the birth of the adult monarch butterfly.

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Bite, Bite, Bite, Chew

Posted by Gary on June 20, 2012 in Insects

So goes the monarch caterpillars on our backyard milkweed plants. The small bushes begin to look like Charlie Brown Christmas trees as the caterpillars crawl up and down the milkweeds devouring each and just about every leaf. It is smart that the monarchs only lay a single egg on a milkweed plant and not all the eggs in one place. This way there will be enough food for the caterpillars to eat. Most butterfly species use this strategy.

Evolution played a role in this. Over the hundreds of thousands of years that butterflies evolved, those monarch butterflies that laid too many eggs on one plant died because there wasn’t sufficient food for all of them. The genes they carried to lay many eggs in one place died with them. The offspring of the “smart” adults that placed their eggs judiciously survived and passed this single egg laying gene on.

Evolution has a way of weeding out problem areas of species that help them survive. If a species can’t adapt to the changing world, it perishes. There were five species of humans all living at the same time over 200,000 years ago. We are the only ones that did not become extinct because we evolved behaviors that helped us survive unstable environments. Where will evolution takes us? Will we be able to meet the challenges of the future? Only if evolution enables our species to survive another 200,000 years will those questions be answered.

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Dads in My Neighborhood

Posted by Gary on June 17, 2012 in Birds of the Field and Forest

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The sun descends in the western Florida sky casting long shadows on the ground. The sun’s rays lights the wispy clouds up in hues of purples and pinks. It is not dark yet and the birds of Arbor Lakes search for their last morsels of food before resting for the night. Clinging to side of a light pole twenty feet high, daddy red-bellied woodpecker drops a caterpillar down the throat of his young daughter. At my backyard bird feeder a father cardinal gives a seed to his daughter in the evening twilight.

These scenes remind me of a fond memory I have of my dad feeding me. I stopped by one day unannounced to say hi. It was lunch time and he offered me a fried steak and onion sandwich. It was the tastiest sandwich I ever had or maybe it wasn’t the food, but spending quality time with my father discussing life. He was just as dedicated to his family as the bird dads were to their families. Each father has nurtured their kids helping them into independence.

On father’s day morning, five tiny fledgling Carolina wrens huddle together against a fence while dad wren stands guard and takes turns with mom bringing food to the youngsters. It is Father’s day and we show appreciation to the dads and father figures who nurtured us into adulthood. The reward for the wren dad and other bird fathers is realized when the youngsters grow up and fly off to independence.

Happy Father’s Day to all the dads out there!

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