Season's Greetings!

Season's Greetings from the BirdCam on Cheltenham!

Excuse us birds while we go back to eating!

Enjoy the Holidays!

The Butterfly Emerges!

Sixteen days after the caterpillar attached itself to the stem and turned into a chrysalis, it has emerged as a butterfly.

The time between these two pictures was only five minutes.  I wish the camera had caught the butterfly in the process of coming out out of the chrysalis.  The camera was taking one picture every five minutes.

In less than 45 minutes the butterfly emerged from the chrysalis, stretched its wings and flew away.

Below is a video of the chrysalis over a one day period.  The interesting part is that the chrysalis moves during the day, flexing back and forth.  This video was made from all of the pictures taken in ten minute increments in one day.

24 hours later!

Wow, look at the changes in only 24 hours!  You can see the outline of the wings forming.  I have changed the frequency on the time-lapse camera to 1 picture every 10 minutes.  I didn't want to disturb that camera any more and will download those pictures once the butterfly emerges.  For now I'm using my digital SLR.

I was picking Passion Butterfly caterpillars off of some passion flower vines when I saw this one on it's way to become a butterfly.  So I set up a time-lapse camera and will try to capture the metamorphosis.

I have programmed the camera to take a picture every hour during daylight hours.  I'll check it to morrow to see how it is doing.

The view from our kitchen!

The tuberous begonias are putting on a great show as they come into bloom.  This is the view from our kitchen.

Tuberous begonias

Tuberous Begonia

Tuberous Begonia

Tuberous Begonia

Tuberous Begonia

Tuberous Begonia

Tuberous Begonia

Panorama of Tuberous Begonias, click to enlarge picture

It's not a tuberous, but its looking great!
B. Barely There

What's all the chirping about?

This morning the Scrub-jays and other birds were making a lot of noise under the carport.  It was a lot more chirping than usual and when I stepped outside I was surprised to see 5 Scrub-jays and several other birds.  Something was up and it turns out all of the the birds were upset that this Western Screech Owl was roosting between the supports in the carport. 

Western Screech-Owl

This little owl is about 7-9 inches tall and it just sat and looked at me.  It didn't seem to be bothered by the birds or me.  I returned a few hours later and all of the noisy birds were gone and the owl was still there but this time asleep.  

Variegated Plumeria

I was in Los Angeles this weekend with Mike and Julie attending the Westchester Begonia Show and we visited a couple of plant nurseries.  At one of the nurseries we saw this variegated plumeria.  I had never seen one before and neither had Mike or Julie.  It was one of only two plants and after some convincing from Julie, I bought it. I don't know what color the blooms will be and neither did the nursery.  So it will be interesting to see what color blooms will ultimately be.  Until then, I'll put it out on the deck next to the other plumerias and enjoy the variegated leaves. 

Variegated Plumeria

Variegated Plumeria

Can't get enough!

I really enjoy looking at the Oriole pictures on the BirdCam.  Sometimes I can see them from inside the house but the instant they think I'm around, they fly away.  The Orioles are not as bold as the hummingbirds.  Most of my sightings are of a yellow feathers flying away!  Good thing I have the BirdCam or I wouldn't know there were so many Orioles in the garden.

Hooded Oriole

Hooded Oriole

Hooded Oriole

Oriole with lunch!

The BirdCam took a picture of this Oriole with a bug in its beak!

Hooded Oriole with a bug

This Oriole feeder is outside the living room and gets a lot of activity from Orioles and Hummingbirds.  The BirdCam took the following pictures of these Orioles.

Hooded Oriole

Hooded Oriole

Hooded Oriole

Hooded Oriole

Hooded Oriole

Happy 4th of July!

Here are some picture of the 4th of July fireworks display in Santa Barbara, California.

Iridescent Anna's Hummingbird

Below is the same Anna's Hummingbird in four pictures.  I think it is fascinating how the iridescent feathers light.  This explanation is from Cornell Lab of Ornithology;
The iridescent colors of the gorget (throat feathers)  are the result of the refraction of incident light caused by the microscopic structure of the feathers. The refraction works like a prism, splitting the light into rich, component colors. At certain angles little or no light is reflected back to the viewer and the gorget can appear black. As the viewing angle changes, the refracted light becomes visible in a glowing, shimmering iridescent display.

Anna's Hummingbird

Anna's Hummingbird

Anna's Hummingbird

Anna's Hummingbird

Oak Titmouse in the Pine Tree

Here is an Oak Titmouse in the pine tree.  It was looking for bugs among the pine cones.

Oak Titmouse

Oak Titmouse

Oak Titmouse

Below is a juvenile California Towhee, notice how its feathers are still coming in.

Juvenile California Towhee