Chapter 22: Birds and
Butterflies
Ellie was feeling better the
next day. When they had been wandering around outside the day before, she had
noticed a number of different kinds of butterflies flitting around on the edges
of the yard. With her butterfly net and sketch book in hand, she headed outside
to see what she could find. She knew that a real entomologist would collect the
butterflies and keep them after killing them to study. She couldn’t kill such
beautiful creatures, though. She preferred to catch them and get a really good
look at them and then let them go. If she sketched them she could remember the
colors and shapes and look them up later.
She had seen so many new and
beautiful butterflies out here. So far she had seen a few swallowtails, but
since they were so big, those were the ones people noticed the most. She was
finding that she was more and more interested in the little ones. Frequently
they were beautiful colors, but they went unnoticed because of their size. The
little white and orange “Orange Tip” looked like a pretty summer dress with its
lacy green mottles and orange wing tips. The “Sleepy Orange” butterfly looked
like an orange-cream popsicle. She caught another hairstreak and let it go. Many
of these she had never seen in Raleigh. She wished Justin were still around. He
wasn’t super interested in bugs like she was, but he had been willing to keep
her company much of the time. There really weren’t any other kids out here her
age to play with now.
Just then, Rose pulled into
the driveway in her beat-up pickup truck. The dog bite incident had put a stop
to their semi-solo bike rides to her house, so she often came over to say “hi”
and bring them berries or vegetables. Ellie was sitting cross-legged in the grass, sketching. She
stood up when Rose came and ambled over to the car. “Hi” she said.
Rose said, “Can I see what
you were doing there?”
“I guess so” said Ellie, and
let Rose have a look at a new hairstreak sketch she had started.
Rose said, “You really are
getting very good Ellie. I don’t think I’ve ever met another child your age who
draws as well as you do.”
Ellie was feeling a bit shy
about it, “Thanks” she said somewhat bashfully. Rose had something in her bag.
She almost always brought something. Sometimes it was fresh bread, sometimes it
was cookies, and sometimes it was something from her garden. Ellie wondered
what she had brought today.
They went up onto the porch
and into the house. Karen was just finishing the dishes. Rose took one look
at her and said, “You look like you’ve had a tough morning.”
Karen gave her a level look
and said, “You don’t know the half of it, but it is certainly better than
yesterday.”
Rose said with a smile,
“Sometimes coming over here makes me glad I’m done raising my own kids. Though,
you never are truly done.”
“Thanks a lot!” said Karen.
“I don’t think I want to think about being mom to five kids the rest of my life
right now. I’m glad we can help you get over having an empty nest though!” This
was all said in jest.
Rose said, “Well, I just got
something for myself and they were so inexpensive, I got an extra one for you
guys. Since the kids have been enjoying the bird feeder so much, I thought they
might also like this hummingbird feeder.” Rose
turned to Ellie. “Ellie, I’m going to put you in charge of filling this and
making sure it’s got clean nectar all of the time. If you do that, you’ll get
to see those little guys most every day.”
Ellie said, “I’m not sure I
want more chores in the morning.”
Rose said, “Trust me. This
will be worth it.” She showed Ellie how to mix up a batch of hummingbird nectar
and put it in the feeder.
Next they had to decide
where to hang it. In the end they hung it rather high up on the kitchen window.
Ellie had to use a stool to get to it, but Rose explained that the higher up
and more open the placing, the more likely the hummingbirds were to come and
use it. Also, they loved the color red, and that was why the feeder was red
plastic. Suction cups attached the feeder to the window.
Rose said, “Give it a few
days. They’ll eventually find it and if they are brave enough to come around
you crazy people, it’ll be a nice show to watch during your meals.”
Karen said, “Thanks Rose.
You always have such interesting things up your sleeve. “
It did take almost a week
before they saw any hummingbirds at the feeder. Ellie had had to clean it out
once when the nectar had started to grow things. Finally, on the eighth day,
they were all sitting down to a pancake breakfast when a tiny green ball of
attitude landed on the feeder and took a long drink.
Soon after, that feeder was
the source of constant activity as the little dive-bombers jockeyed for rights
to the nectar. The little magenta-bibbed males would even chase others off, as
is they thought the feeder belonged to them, and the yard would be full of
whirring wings and chittering attitude all afternoon. Ellie found out that
these were Ruby-throated hummingbirds, the most common kind on the East Coast. Yeller
also enjoyed watching them and would sit by the window meowing softly, tail
twitching.
Ellie also got to go out
with her Dad that week. Johnathan had decided to take one kid a week on his
workdays, and Sarah said she could wait, so Ellie was up next. The Graduate
students enjoyed meeting yet another Katz kid and Ellie did pretty well as
recorder, though she kept getting distracted by the flying, buzzing and
fluttering things.
That day they caught a king snake
and Ellie had to admit that it was pretty neat. Her dad told her that this snake
was special in that it ate other snakes. One of the problems with this kind of
sampling was the danger that something they had caught might eat something else
they had caught. Judging by the size of this snake, it looked like it had had a
recent meal. Johnathan wondered out loud if it had made a meal of another snake
in the pitfall trap, but since they could only record what was actually seen,
they could only guess at what it might have been.
Anaan and Phoebe were very
impressed with Ellie’s bug knowledge and agreed with Johnathan that they might
have an entomologist in the making in their midst. What Ellie learned about the most
that day was how actual fieldwork was conducted and recorded. Everything had to
be as consistent as possible and was done with exacting care. Here was the
scientific method in action, and when she gave her report to her family that
night, she spoke about that as well as the snake she saw.
Ellie also managed to get
through the day having acquired only one tiny seed tick. Johnathan had begun to
perfect his tick-avoidance strategies. Pants were always tucked into boots and
covered with heavy socks. Long shirts with long sleeves were worn tucked in and
everyone was sprayed well with bug spray. This was all pretty effective, if a
bit funny looking and a bit warm.
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