Dozens of Doves and One Great Egret
—Plus the Continuation of the Q Continuum
We often see flocks of Mourning Doves flying above our house, and watch as dozens of them congregate on our dead Agave flower stalks. The Doves cluster together, scooting each other aside, as more fly in. Here are ≈ two dozen, drawn in my Perpetual Journal.
It’s a fun challenge for me to draw birds this small—these Doves are about 0.5” high in my sketchbook. At that size, I really needed to distill them down to their essence—focusing on their shape and color.
When I draw a bird medium size I can add a few details. The Great Egret below, at 1.75” high in my Perpetual Journal, is an example of what (for me) is more of a “medium size” bird drawing. A large size bird drawing (for me) could be a whopping 3-4” high; then I can add lots of details!
Note that we saw the Great Egret, a wading bird, at Sweetwater Wetlands—not in our cactus-y yard! 😁 Also note that my 2023 entry on this PJ page included a Milkweed and one of our Tiny Little Friends—a Queen Butterfly Larva. This is the perfect segue into my next topic!
🐛The Continuation of the Q Continuum
The “Q” in “Q Continuum” stands for Queen Butterflies, of course! 😁 As I wrote two weeks ago, Hubby & I have had a population explosion of Queen Butterfly larvae (a.k.a. Tiny Little Friends or TLFs) on our Milkweeds. The TLFs have been growing larger as they munch our Milkweeds into oblivion. We’re currently monitoring two eggs, at least one small (0.25”) larva, nine larger (0.75”-1.5”) larvae (one of which is in a pre-pupation “J” shape!), and one that has (drum roll, please!) pupated (become a chrysalis!!!) 🎉
Hubby & I have observed that TLFs pupate when they’re about 1.5” long. Their whole life cycle seems to go more slowly in Winter than in Summer, which is no surprise given that they’re cold-blooded and it’s cold out right now! Our nighttime temperatures have dipped below freezing the past week, even going as low as 24° F. 🥶
Being the supportive Q fan that I am, I’ve been trying to encourage our TLFs to pupate. Multiple times a day, I’ve been whispering to them “Pyoooooo-paaaate! PYOOOOOOOOpaaaaate!” I’ve also pointed out to the TLFs that since our nighttime temperatures are below freezing, their chrysalises would be like nice cozy sleeping bags!
I find it so amazing that our TLFs can be outside all night long, exposed to temps as low as 24° F., and then the next day crawl around and eat just as they normally do! They are hearty little creatures!
So far, only this one TLF has heeded my wise advice to pupate (what do humans know about metamorphosis, anyway?!?). I guess I, in turn, should heed the wise advice of Lao Tzu:
"Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished."
- Lao Tzu
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Love the graphics. :))
Question: are you 'barrel cacti' what in S. Africa (and beyond) we call 'prickly pears?' (Best served chilled.)