“They’re baaaack!” Although this phrase may send chills through the bodies of those of us lucky enough to have watched Poltergeist in the 1980’s, today’s version of it (at least at my house) is anything but frightening.
Today, we had our first of the year Pipevine Swallowtail arrive. It’s an annual event at this point, so it would we strange if they didn’t arrive. Still, it is exciting when the first one finds our giant Dutchman’s Pipe Pipevine plant (photo above).
While watering the new flower garden and thinking to myself how almost nothing has visited it this year after a spring of breaking my back preparing this new area of the yard, I had a quick visit from a male Zabulon Skipper on our verbena. Shortly after, I was somewhat surprised to see something jet down from the cherry tree to the same verbena, and this one was large. It was, I thought, a Spicebush Swallowtail when viewing it from across the yard, but instead it turned out to be the first Pipevine Swallowtail of the year.
After getting some photos of this, I continued to water and found, of all things, a spotted turtle! Although we aren’t super far from water by any means, I wouldn’t think one would wander this far. It turns out that it is a female and is gifting us with her eggs as I type. The nest will be protected to the best of our ability until (hopefully) the eggs hatch. Be that in a couple months, or next spring. Time will tell!
Our Natural Adventures 