Backyard Wonder
- Natalie Lee
- Jun 29, 2020
- 3 min read
Updated: Nov 9, 2020
Sometimes, if you look outside your window, you can find something super cool. In my case, I discovered a few blue jays hanging out around a puddle in my backyard. I watched the birds closely and noticed something peculiar: one of the blue jays was unusually large. Now, I'm not 100% sure if that particular bird was pregnant, but that would be my guess. The correct term is actually gravid, which means "carrying eggs or developing young." I conducted a little research and found some evidence that supported my hypothesis.
The breeding season for blue jays is between the months of March and July, and when I saw the bird, it was June. On top of that, it's summertime. During the summer, blue jays are typically skinny, which was different than the appearance of the bird I saw. In the winter, they will appear larger because of the extra fat stored in their body to keep them warm.
This interesting discovery prompted me to look for other wildlife around my house. I live on a quiet street, and there's woodland behind my backyard. As a result, deer sightings are quite common. I believe the deer in my area are white-tailed deer. Despite being relatively docile animals, deers have some amazing skills. They have a keen sense of smell and sharp hearing abilities. A full-grown adult can leap up to 30 feet and run up to 35 miles per hour! In fact, fawns can stand on their legs only 20 minutes after birth, and they can walk just an hour after being born!
Fun Fact: If you find a fawn (baby deer) alone, it doesn't mean it's lost or orphaned. It's hiding until its mother returns. Fawns are masters at hiding—they have camouflage and close to no scent, so it's hard for predators to find them.
When I wake up in the morning, I always hear the birds chirping. Recently, I woke up at around 5:00 am to record some bird noises because I discovered that the birds are most active at that time (at least in my area).
You can hear a variety of bird noises from short chirps to longer squawks—it's their way of communicating. There are two main categories of bird noises: songs and calls. If a bird spots danger or feels threatened, it might call in alarm. Birds might also call to each other if they are separated or during flight. Younger birds might call to their parents for food.
If you listen closely to the recording, you will also hear the sound of a woodpecker drilling into a tree. On rare occasions, I can observe a woodpecker while it's drilling into a tree behind my backyard (unfortunately, I don't have a picture). Woodpeckers drill into trees to find insects to eat. In order to do so, it uses its talons to latch onto the bark and its tail for support. Then, it starts pecking at the tree super fast—up to 16 pecks per second!
Every year from late spring to early summer, caterpillars appear on the parsley plant on my front porch. After some research, I determined that these caterpillars would transform into black swallowtail butterflies in the future. Black swallowtail caterpillars spend 3 to 4 weeks in this stage. Here you can see two of them munching on my parsley plant. These caterpillars are voracious eaters; they can completely devour the parsley plant. Fortunately, my family doesn't use much parsley when cooking, so the caterpillars have the parsley for themselves. Scroll through the slideshow below to view some pictures that I took!
When I was younger, I would prod at the caterpillars and watch two yellow-orange antennae poke out from its head. The correct term is actually osmeterium. When they feel threatened, their osmeteria come out and release an odor as a defense mechanism.
To morph into a butterfly, caterpillars form a chrysalis. For a black swallowtail, it spends 10 to 20 days as a chrysalis before transforming into a butterfly. Although I wasn't able to witness this transformation, I was lucky enough to find a chrysalis! The first picture is of the caterpillar still going through its transformation, and the second picture is of an empty chrysalis (the caterpillar had transformed and flew away as a butterfly).
There is much more wildlife around my house than mentioned in this article. I've seen little creatures like bees, moths, spiders, ants, worms, and mosquitos (both in and out of the house). I've also seen larger animals such as squirrels, chipmunks, cats, badgers, foxes, and other types of birds. If there is any interesting wildlife around your home, comment down below! I hope you learned something new today. Keep a lookout for the next post!
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