Tufted Titmouse, Orchard Spider and Florida Springtime, Urban Biodiversity

I finished working with the green roof plants this afternoon and sat on the back porch to watch the sun go down.  The garden flowers shown in the afternoon sun as did the lone orchid spider and the bathing tufted titmouse!  Urban wildlife at its finest!

Orchid Spider, Leucauge venusta

Tufted titmouse, Baeolophus bicolor

Tufted titmouse, Baeolophus bicolor

Tufted titmouse, Baeolophus bicolor

Tufted titmouse, Baeolophus bicolor

Spring in Florida Garden!

Luna Moths and Jincy Rhianna, Urban Wonders

Though we are deep in the concrete jungle, unusual wildlife shows up here on the Urban Farm daily, drawn to, I believe in part, an unusual sprite.   Jincy Rhianna is going on 15 years.  When two years she spoke to a rattlesnake (I saw it with my eyes), telling it not to strike her in a field of Tu Mu Shui plantation.  At four years hummingbirds would fly to her hands, resting in her cupped palms.  Her and her brother Ruairi Aidan would sneak off, hike deep into the cypress swamp and sit at the feet of Grandmother Cypress, an ancient tree, listening to the stories told on the swamp breezes as they rustled through the spanish moss.   Then the day came where we followed fate, sold the coastal pine flatwoods refuge and moved into the Urban Core of Jacksonville.  But Jincy's water faery spirit lingers on.  And today I come home from a greenroof trip across Florida to find the photos of her and a young Luna Moth on the camera.  She is not home to tell me about the moth.  But I understand.  I understand I do not really understand anything except Jincy's Irish Faery Spirit and She Nature exist in a realm I could only imagine.  I will ask her later what their eyes told one another, for a Luna Moth has large 'eyes' on its wings yet no mouth and does not eat.  It lives only one week, born to mate, just as all Saturniidae.

Trí ní is deacair a thuiscint;
intleacht na mban,
obair na mbeach,
teacht agus imeacht na taoide.

Actias luna & Jincy Rhianna

Actias luna & Jincy Rhianna

Actias luna & Jincy Rhianna

Actias luna & Jincy Rhianna

Buteo jamaicensis, Urban Core Adaptation, Nature Urbaine

The two red-tail hawks living in our neighborhood are becoming increasingly used to our presence, indicating a high level of urbanization.  We have a bird houe stand adjacent to one of the greenhouses in the back and whereas before when the hawks would watch our activities from high up in the trees, they now swoop down for a closer view.


Of course, we would never hurt them.  In fact they keep our yard free of any mice and many other pest creatures as they are fast and voracious hunters and feeders.


Yet it is amazing just how much the Urban Core has changed the habits of birds and other wildlife.

Buteo jamaicensis

Buteo jamaicensis

Feeling the Mood, Getting the Groove and Afterglow, Shorty the Urban Red Tail Hawk & Mate

Puffed Feathers, Sure Mood Indicator

Urban Red Tail Hawks, Contemplating Next Move

The Groove

Afterglow & Afterthoughts 

House Finch, Carpodacus mexicanus

Originally native to Mexico, the House Finch was imported during the 1940's into North America.

To avoid prosecution under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918, many dealers when confronted by game wardens or regulators would let the birds free.  House Finches have now naturalized into Florida.

Scientific Name:  Carpodacus mexicanus

Common Name:  House Finch

Carpodacus mexicanus, Male

Carpodacus mexicanus, Male

Carpodacus mexicanus, Female

The Policeman and His Car

Shorty the Red Tailed hawk lives in a tree up high in our neighbor's backyard.

Shorty's mate has just given birth to a very loud and very hungry chick.

Chick stay's impatiently hungry all day and Shorty and his mate must chase down all the mice, snakes, squirrels and fish from the creek to feed the juvenile Buteo jamaicensis.

We drove up yesterday and Shorty was perched on my neighbor Steve's Police auto.

Adaptation is key to survival for wildlife in the Urban Core.

Buteo jamaicensis - Neighborhood Mice Police

Shorty, Red Tailed Hawk

Mating Pair, Red Tailed Hawks