Murder on Manton Street

The story you are about to see is true; only the names have been changed to protect the innocent. Saturday, September 27th, it was warm in Rhode Island.  It was 2:00 pm when I went outside to get the mail.  I caught a movement out of the corner of my eye.  I witnessed the cat Marty, aka Romeo, throwing something up in the air.  It was a chipmunk.

The suspect.

The victim.

It was only the second time I'd seen a chipmunk in the area.  By the time I realized what the suspect was doing, it was too late.  The chipmunk was a goner.  The cat Albert, aka Tigger, was questioned regarding his complicity in the crime.

Eye witnesses saw the suspect eating part of the chipmunk later in the day.

By Sunday all evidence of the crime had disappeared.  A roaming opossum was thought to be the suspect's accomplice.

The suspect was tried by a court in and for the County of Providence.  Since evidence of the crime was lost, the suspect was acquitted and set free.  We don’t even try to prove that crime doesn’t pay ... sometimes it does.

Generous Geese

September, the end of summer, cooler temperatures and the beginning of fall.  Can't believe it's here already.  Have been hearing lots of geese flying overhead lately - saw a pretty big flock just this morning.  I found this interesting video about them and thought I would share it.  Enjoy!



I wrote another post about geese about this time a few years ago.  You can learn more about geese here.

More of the Same

Sorry but it's another butterfly bush post.  The last few weeks I have been visited by THREE butterflies that are uncommon here in Rhode Island.  You already saw the Red-Spotted Purple.  Was also visited by a Spicebush Swallowtail.

and the Monarch-mimic, the Viceroy.  Do you know the difference?  Which is which??

The bottom two photos are the Viceroy.  You can see that the Monarch has two rows of white spots around the edges of its wings while the Viceroy only has one row, among other differences.

I hadn't seen any Monarchs all summer long and was thinking just that when I looked out and saw one.  Couldn't believe my eyes.  And the next day I saw a second one - at least I'm pretty sure it was a second one because it had a broken hind wing and the first one didn't.  The first visit almost ended in tragedy because as I was following it flying from blossom to blossom and snapping away it suddenly landed right next to a huge praying mantis!

The butterfly flitted away unharmed.  I had just seen a big grasshopper right about where the praying mantis was sitting.

I think maybe THAT was lunch and it wasn't hungry anymore.

I've seen the Viceroy several times now and I think the Spicebush was just here again yesterday, but I didn't get a very good look at it.  I'm sure you're hoping that this is the last butterfly bush post and it will be as long as I don't have any more surprise visitors.

The Demise of the Ugly Mushroom

Actually I'm not sure if what grew at my curb was a mushroom or a toadstool.  It seemed like it just suddenly appeared and I never noticed a small version of it growing. but then that is the meaning of the phrase, 'it mushroomed'.  I was surprised it grew at all since it's been so dry around here.  My mushroom started out looking like a white bald man's head with veins and blood vessels showing and then we had some rain and it turned brown.

At one point I measured it and it was 4 inches across.  It was around for a couple of weeks until one day I noticed that the cap had fallen off.

Not knowing whether it was poisonous or not and with all the stray cats and other critters around, I picked the cap up along with the stem, put them in a plastic bag and threw them in the garbage.  Very weird, but very interesting.