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The WFSU Ecology Blog
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    • Florida Friendly Seasonal Planting Guide
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Backyard Blog June 2019

by Rob Diaz de Villegas August 5, 2019
Black swallowtail caterpillar eats its egg.

This will be a backyard blog short on photos, but the one we have are some good ones. My family and I went on an epic three week road trip to Colorado, where we camped in four different National Parks. So we weren’t in the yard. Still, there was plenty to see when we got back, and July will be a mammoth entry.

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While we were on vacation…

I won’t bore you with every plant, animal, and lichen I iNaturalized while on vacation. But there was one critter I did want to highlight:

Yellow-rumped warbler- summer breeding plumage.
Yellow-rumped warbler- summer breeding plumage.

I photographed this bird at Great Sand Dunes National Park. It’s a species that visits my yard every winter, but here in its summer plumage. This is the yellow-rumped warbler, a common sight in Tallahassee during the winter migratory season. Since birds tend to breed during the summer months, this is when many species have much more colorful plumage. When we see them in the colder months in Florida, they tend to be duller and greyer.

Speaking of breeding…

A few days after we returned, I saw our first black swallowtail eggs of the year:

Black swallowtail butterfly egg, on dill.
Black swallowtail butterfly egg, on dill.

We had three eggs on fennel and dill plants. Within a couple of days, I saw first instar caterpillars eating those eggs. If you haven’t see it yet, we took a year’s worth of black swallowtail caterpillar footage to make a video on their life cycle.

Black swallowtail caterpillar eats its egg.
Black swallowtail caterpillar eats its egg.

Meanwhile, we had a new wave of monarchs. Here’s one just after molting its skin.

Fourth instar monarch caterpillar after molting its skin.
Fourth instar monarch caterpillar after molting its skin.

They molt between every instar stage, eating the skin afterwards. As you can see, while we were gone, the milkweed aphids got out of hand. Luckily, that attracted their predator:

Syrphid larva in a smorgasbord of milkweed aphids.
Syrphid larva in a smorgasbord of milkweed aphids.

I’ve had my worries about whether syrphid larvae eat monarchs as well as aphids. It led me to research monarch predators, which I wrote about a couple of years ago. I learned a lot about other insects, often beneficial insects, that predate monarchs. But syrphids seem harmless to our caterpillars. But I still watch them. After all, they can stomach critters that eat toxic milkweed.

Using iNaturalist in the yard, I’ve learned more about the hoverflies they grow into. We have several species of these bee mimics in the yard, and they’re busy pollinators. They are fascinating animals.

And lastly…

Spider eating beetle.
Spider eating beetle.

The image above was snapped on June 28. If you scroll to June 21 on the 2018 Backyard Blog, you’ll see an image of the same species of spider eating the same species of June beetle. I guess it makes sense that this is a reliable food source during this month of the year.

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An iPhone with the iNaturalist app open.

Apps and Citizen Science mentioned in the Backyard Blog

iNaturalist

Identify plants, animals, lichens, and fungi in your yard. Other users correct your identifications if you’re wrong, and even if they don’t, it can be a good springboard to further research.

Seek by iNaturalist

Instant identification, and it doesn’t record your location. This is a good option for kids with phones.

Monarch Larva Monitoring Project

Enter information about monarch caterpillars in your yard, and help researchers get a sense of the health of the monarch population that year, and how and when they’re migrating.

Great Sunflower Project

Record the number of pollinators visiting your flowers, and help researchers map pollinator activity across the country.



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iNaturalist

iNaturalist became a part of the WFSU Ecology Blog during the EcoCitizen Project in 2019.  Since then, we’ve used it to help identify the many plants and animals we see on our shoots.  And on the Backyard Blog, we show how it can be used to identify weeds and garden insects, to help figure out what’s beneficial or a possible pest.  Below is the iNaturalist profile belonging to WFSU Ecology producer Rob Diaz de Villegas.

iNaturalist


View robdv’s observations »

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The WFSU Ecology and Education teams at the UF/IFAS Leon County Extension Open House and Plant Sale, May of 2025. Photo by Clara Mullins.

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The WFSU Ecology Blog
  • Home
    • About the WFSU Ecology Blog
    • EcoAdventures
      • Kayak and Canoe Adventures
      • Hiking
      • Wildlife Watching
    • Observations From the Field
      • White Pelicans Visit Dr. Charles L. Evans Pond in Tallahassee
      • An April Walk at Ochlockonee River WMA
      • Nesting Raptors at Honeymoon Island State Park
    • WFSU Public Media Home
  • Documentaries
    • Secrets of the Seep: A Voyage into the Mysteries of Ocean Carbon
    • Finding the First Floridians: Underwater Archeologists Uncover Florida’s Prehistory
    • In Their Words: Black Legacy Communities in North Florida
    • EcoCitizen Show | Seasons in South Tallahassee
    • Red Wolf Family Celebrates First Year at the Tallahassee Museum
    • Roaming the Red Hills
    • Oyster Doctors
    • Testing the Ecology of Fear
    • EcoShakespeare
    • Stories from the Apalachicola
    • Classic WFSU Ecology Documentaries
  • Habitats
    • Estuaries
      • Oyster Reef
        • The Effects of Predators and Fear on Oyster Reefs
        • Apalachicola Oyster Research
        • Animal Species in a North Florida Intertidal Oyster Reef
        • Oyster Reef Ecology | On the Reef
      • Salt Marsh
        • In the Grass- Salt Marsh Biodiversity Study
        • Plants and Animals of a North Florida Salt Marsh
        • Salt Marsh Ecology | In the Grass
      • Seagrass Bed
        • Predatory Snails, and Prey, of the Bay Mouth Bar Seagrass Beds
      • In the Grass, On the Reef Glossary
    • Waterways Big and Small
      • Aucilla/ Wacissa Watershed
      • Apalachicola Basin
        • Apalachicola Bluffs and Ravines | Virtual Field Trip
        • The Age of Nature Screening & Discussion | The Future of the Apalachicola
        • Apalachicola River and Bay
        • Apalachicola RiverTrek | Kayaking, Camping, & Hiking the River Basin
    • Longleaf Pine & Fire Ecology
  • Backyard Habitat
    • Backyard Blog
      • My Year in Bugs: the 2022 Backyard Blog
      • Backyard Ecology Blog | 2021
      • Backyard Blog November/ December 2020
      • Backyard Blog September/ October 2020
      • July and August 2020 Backyard Blog
      • Backyard Blog June 2020
      • Backyard Blog May 2020
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      • Backyard Blog February and March 2020
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      • Backyard Blog October through December 2019
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      • Backyard Blog April 2019
      • Backyard Blog March 2019
      • Backyard Blog February 2019
      • Backyard Blog January 2019
      • The Backyard Bug Blog 2018
    • Backyard Flora and Fauna
      • Bees of North Florida and South Georgia
      • Wasps of North Florida: The Bad, the Ugly, and the (yes, really) Good
      • The Seasonality of Bees (and Bee Plants) in North Florida
      • Woody Vines of North Florida
      • Flies of North Florida are More Diverse than You’d Think
      • The Case for Weeds, Our Unsung Florida Native Plants
      • Devil’s Walkingstick: Your New Favorite Thorny Pollinator Plant?
      • Florida Native Milkweed | Tips for Growing Your Monarch Friendly Garden
      • Mistletoe | A Parasite for the Holidays (But Maybe We Like it Anyway?)
    • Florida Friendly Seasonal Planting Guide
    • Pollinator and Gardening Posts
    • Gardening Web Resources