Toilet frog

The frog who moved into my toilet this summer was always an interesting surprise for guests who visited the downstairs bathroom. My little house has 2 1/2 bathrooms, so the half bath in the laundry room was only used on rare occasions…. a hurried trip back from the beach or a morning walk after coffee.

Hyla cinerea in his winter home

He was usually discovered when the lid was lifted, but occasionally he was under the seat and not found by my visiting friends until they were comfortably seated and he jumped for safety.

It was a symbiotic relationship. I think he spent the summer crouched above the toilet bowl, zapping the mosquitoes headed for a pool to lay eggs. So we lived in harmony, I never used caustic cleaners and he continued to keep the toilet bowl mosquito free.

But we had a cold snap in November and when it warmed I took the opportunity to relocate him to the garden so he could hibernate in the mud with his kin. He wasn’t happy. He peed copious amounts of toilet water on my hand and reappeared on the toilet the very next day. This happened again on another warm day in December, and again this week.

He’s back today and the forecast is frigid with 33 mph wind gusts, so I researched the care and feeding of this stubborn little  Hyla Cinerea. He can be kept as a pet, but requires crickets and moths for food if he doesn’t hibernate.

http://allaboutfrogs.org/info/species/grntree.html

So, I have inadvertently adopted another pet. I already have an antique English Setter who requires a diet of chicken & rice after her years in a puppy mill, an ancient cat rescued from a culvert who binges & purges on a weekly basis, and a $2 WalMart fish who turned out to be an Asian brackish Green Spotted Puffer requiring a $40 bag of Instant Ocean and a $22 Hygrometer.

I guess I am now relegated to weekly trips to the pet store in Foley for crickets for my faithful frog. If y’all have an idea for a name, please let me know!

Royalty has Returned to Fort Morgan!

Backyard Butterflies

The Monarchs have returned, and it is a regal reunion!  Last evening they ‘roosted’ in my backyard, somewhat protected from the cold north gales blowing autumn into Lower Alabama, and I was mesmerized.

I noticed them hovering near the clothesline as I gathered the sheets and towels at dusk, then I realized they were fighting to land in the tufts of new growth at the ends of the pine branches.

Against the wind

Looking closer I saw they were hanging from all the branches between my house and the  trees along the lagoon. They weren’t easy to see in the scrub oak trees, so it’s possible they’ve stopped here in the past and I didn’t notice the Monarch Motel in my own backyard.

Where's Waldo?

As the sun dropped into the bay, they folded their wings and stopped jostling for position. They were almost invisible from the ground.

In for a landing

But I was back when the sun came up this morning and I watched as the rays warmed them, one by one, and they glided from their perches in search of blooms to fuel their long flight across the gulf. It is the most amazing journey.

http://www.monarch-butterfly.com/monarch-migration.html

Morning flight

As I write, there are dozens fluttering across my yard, all traveling to the west. Some pause briefly at one of the few flowers surviving the drought… what I wouldn’t give for a field of milkweed today.

Sun salute

They have only been here for a few days and I’ve already seen many, many more than last fall. Perhaps there are even more to come?

I couldn’t find any parsley plants in town for the Swallowtails hanging around last week, and there’s not much I can do for the Fritillaries that ravaged my Passion vines and left without a ‘Thank You’ back in August.

 

Fritillary by Janice Neitzel from Janice4sandyshores.wordpress.com

The very hungry caterpillars

I wonder what Monarch’s like for breakfast, and I wonder what’s blooming at Lowes?

 

Breakfast?