Saturday, June 14, 2014

The Wren House and a New Yard Herp

House Wren

When I installed a bird house on our fence this spring, I thought it would be merely ornamental. To my surprize, a House Wren has occupied it and he appears to have a mate. Since House Wrens are known to build multiple dummy nests, I am not totally sure whether there is an actual nest inside, but the behaviour of the birds suggests that it might. I guess there is one easy way to find out (i.e. open up the box) but we don't want to disturb it if in fact there are eggs/nestlings inside. We will just have to pay attention and see what emerges.

Dekay's Brownsnake (Storia dekayi)

Hannah was seeing a Brownsnake in the garden a few mornings in a row, which is a new snake for our yard bringing the total number of snake species to two.



Above is a distribution map from the Ontario Reptile and Amphibian Atlas, showing that Dekay's Brownsnake is unevenly distributed within southern Ontario.

A Jamaican Lep

I was only able to get one decent photo of a butterfly in Jamaica.


Malachite (Siproeta stelenes)

I would have liked to get a photograph of the Jamaican Giant Swallowtail (the largest swallowtail butterfly in the Americas) but it is extremely rare.