Blogging in Myrtle Glen

One morning on my daily garden walk, I see them. Beautiful caterpillars, snow-white with black dots and orange feet. They are munching on my Passiflora Incense vine 

The caterpillars feed only on the passion vines, the adult butterflies feed on nectar and pollen. Their most favorite flower in the garden is the Lantana but they also like the blue plumbago flowers and Pentas. Of course  they visit all other blooms as well. 

From the egg laid to the emerging butterfly can take as little as 3 weeks. Longer if the temperatures are cooler. 

So go ahead and plant a passion vine in your yard, the butterflies with thank you for it. Passion vine is also the host plant for the orange Gulf Fritillary butterfly’s caterpillar. 

Can you find the Ruby-throated Hummingbird in this photo? 

I watched him fly through Myrtle Glen, sipping nectar from the flowers and when he finally perched on the branch he let me get close to take some pictures. 

This year we have two male Ruby-throated Hummingbirds chasing each other, and several females zipping around. They are very vocal and aggressive towards each other, guarding a flowering plant they claim for themselves against all other hummers, even butterflies and large bumblebees.

Males have bright read colored throat, females are grayish in color.

Wings beating about 53 times per second create the hum.

The birds are flying acrobats, they can hover, fly upside down and backwards. This takes up a lot of energy and their high metabolism requires them to eat up to twice their body weight in food each day. On the menu are insects, spiders, flower nectar and sap.

In Fall they migrate to  Mexico and Central America but breed here in the eastern half of North America. Males establish a territory and court the females with flying acrobatics, doing  loopings in the sky. Females may have several broods laying 1 to 3 eggs each time. 

We do not offer sugar water in feeders since the birds prefer the flowers.

Here is a list of flowers the Hummingbirds love to visit, they do prefer red flowers, and visit those first, to then go on the pinks, orange, purple and blue

Pineapple Sage

red Bottlebrush blooms

Coral Honeysuckle

the flowers on my Bromeliad Portea petropolitana

Abution

Shrimp Plant

Spiral Ginger

red Pentas

pink Porterweed

Bat faced cuphea

Candy Corn (Cigar Plant) 

purple Porterweed

Iochroma, purple bell-shaped flowers

Passionflower

Morning Glories

different Salvias and Sage 

Aloe flowers

The edible bird house is much-loved by the birds in Myrtle Glen. 

The seeds are glued on to a wooden bird house I bought at an Arts & Crafts store with edible glue made with whole wheat flour, corn syrup, gelatin and water. Black sunflower seeds, wild bird seed mix, peanuts, raisins and cranberries are yummy treats for the birds. 

As soon as all is picked off, I clean the bird house and make it again