Animals that don't fit other Pages

The Animal Types found on this page will be those that just did not fit into the other categories listed on the Animal Crackers Index Page...

This time of year we are seeing a well known butterfly, the Monarch. The Female shown here is on her way South for the winter after being born somewhere further North. Though we have only seen a few this fall, literally millions of them migrate from eastern North America to spend the winter in central Mexico. In the spring they will move again north pausing to breed where they find Milkweeds. Their offspring will continue north even up into southern Canada and they will also pause to breed. The last brood of the summer begins to move south as temperatures start to fall. This migration is all the more remarkable as no one individual is likely to make the round trip to Mexico. Though this individual has never been to the mountain forest wintering grounds, she will somehow find the way there by pure instinct.

While doing caretaker work at a friends' mountain home on Cherry Mountain, North Carolina one spring, we usually left the back porch light on during the night. We did this mostly so we could see the bats flying by as they hunted for flying insects.
One morning we happened to go outside rather early and found this colorful collection of various sized moths and butterflies clinging to the wood shake wall. They had been attracted by the porch light and apparently decided to spent the night clinging to the wall shingles for protection. With the sun just barely up, it was still too chilly for them to move along in their search for food that day. This made for an interesting collage of color and form....

This little lizard is a Blue-Tailed Skink. This little guy is perhaps 5 to 6 inches long. I caught him sunning himself on the edge stones of this raised bed by our home in Lenoir, NC, but he quickly retreated under the flowers immediately when he heard the camera click. He generally would be searching for insects to eat under the Impatiens (shown) and the Hostas and Ferns back behind these flowers. Skinks are capable of losing and later regenerating a tail should a predator grab them there. This defensive mechanism can save the lizard's life. Saw another one earlier this year running around without his tail.

If you look closely, you can see a little Tree Frog sitting on the right hand edge of the watering can. We usually left the can generally with some water in it, sitting beside the back steps near the fern garden. Apparently he found the water refreshing on hot days and would then climb up into the spigot to escape the sun. While we filled the watering can as shown here, he would climb out onto the edge and "ride" the can while we watered, before returning to his cool retreat. He would do this for several days in a row, then disappear a while, and reappear again. Sometimes we found him up under the Hot Tub Cover when it got chillier. This all occurred while we lived in Conyers GA....