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Nature’s Reflections – Butterflies

THE GRACEFUL, CROWNING TOUCH TO ANY GARDEN

 

Some are as big as your hand, while others could fit on the head of a tack. Regardless of size, butterflies are creatures of beauty that are a joy to watch. According to entomologists, there are 200 species of butterflies and moths with breeding populations in Florida. Many others visit or migrate through our State.

 

The most successful butterfly habitat includes plants which meet the needs of butterflies during all four stages of their life cycle: egg, caterpillar, chrysalis and adult. After mating, female butterflies search for the perfect host plant on which to lay their eggs. Not just any plant will do, and native plants are favorites. Females must find a plant that will provide food for their young who emerge as caterpillars with voracious appetites and survive on leaves of the host plant. Most caterpillars have defenses other than coloration. Some hide in curled leaves or silk webbing, while others emit an odor that is repulsive to an enemy.

 

A caterpillar’s best defense is quick growth, escaping would-be predators by shedding skin to change into a chrysalis. It quickly attaches to plant stems protected by surrounding vegetation. Inside the chrysalis, the adult butterfly is formed by metamorphosis and emerges to sip the sweet nectar from Florida’s flowers.

 

Time from egg to adult is five weeks. Adults lead a life of leisure, eating, mating, laying eggs, sleeping, and of course, escaping predators. Enemies of these gorgeous, day-flying insects are primarily human creations – vehicles, pesticides and parking lots. Others fall prey to disease and natural predators. Ants, particularly fire ants, along with other insects, arachnids (spiders) and birds are among the major predators of butterfly eggs and caterpillars.

 

Adult butterflies are capable of traveling considerable distances. During the fall, monarchs travel from southern Canada to central Mexico. In Florida, the monarch is not the only long-distance traveler. From August to mid-October, huge numbers of cloudless sulphurs, long-tailed skippers, common buckeyes, gulf fritillaries, clouded skippers and others come south with the rest of the snowbirds to spend the winter in Florida.

 

Column & photos by Sandi Staton – sandi.staton@gmail.com

 

Read the full Nature’s Reflections article in the October 2018 SECO News online.

SECO News, October 2018

DUNCAN’S DIGEST

 

SECO CHAMPIONS

 

SECO Energy is a company of Champions. Our employees are local people who work hard and raise families in the communities SECO serves. When you call, email or visit a SECO location with a question or a service need, the employees who respond are right here in Central Florida.

May 2018 SECO News Duncan's Digest

 

The Operations employees who come running – braving the wind, rain and lightning to restore power – are viewed as everyday superheroes when storms blow through or equipment fails. Our Champions live and work all across our service area for the quickest response time. Nights, weekends and holidays are regular business hours for these Champions who are committed to the highest quality, most reliable electric service possible.

 

Serving your energy needs is personal for us, so we want you to get to know our employees. Whether you run into them in the grocery store, at a ball game or restoring service after an outage, I can assure you that SECO is a company of dedicated employees and upstanding citizens committed to the members we serve.

 

Meet our first two SECO Energy Champions – Paul Byrd and Aaron Vaughn. Paul is a Service Technician who works in the central part of our service territory. Aaron is a Crew Supervisor who works the second shift and covers all areas of SECO’s service territory. Read more about these gentlemen on the next page, visit our website and click on the Champions banner to watch Paul and Aaron’s videos as our very first featured Champions.

 

Watch for next month’s SECO News, engage on our social media platforms or on SECO’s homepage as we unveil a few more SECO Energy Champions every month. Each and every SECO employee works to provide you with affordable, reliable electric service. Our employees are the brightest and best in our industry, and I hope you enjoy learning more about them.

 

Together, we are “StormReady.” It is our privilege to serve your family’s energy needs.

 

Sincerely,

 

Jim Duncan

Chief Executive Officer

 

 

 

SECO Champions Aaron and Paul October 2018

 

Meet two SECO Champions – Aaron and Paul – two examples of our 400+ SECO Champion employees. Aaron and Paul are dedicated to providing exceptional service to our members, co-workers and communities.

 

AARON VAUGHN – TRANSMISSION & DISTRIBUTION SERVICE SUPERVISOR

 

LENGTH OF SERVICE – 6 YEARS

 

“I love my job.”

 

 

Aaron Vaughn is a SECO Champion who supervises SECO’s two-man rapid response line crews who are on-call and ready to dispatch 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Aaron and his family have lived in Central Florida for ten years, and during leisure time they enjoy local church events, fishing, gardening and raising animals in Citrus County. During storm season, SECO crews – led by supervisors like Aaron – are staged throughout our service territory so they can respond quickly when lightning takes out a transformer, a tree falls on a line or winds bring down a pole. Aaron wants members to rest assured that “SECO has crews available at all times to restore power outages whether it’s during a weekend, at midnight or a holiday – SECO is here for you.”

 

PAUL BYRD – SERVICE TECHNICIAN

 

LENGTH OF SERVICE – 14 YEARS

 

“It’s an adventure.”

 

 

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/edit?o=U&video_id=cX4O4mtjQ6M[/embedyt]

 

SECO Champion Paul Byrd is a Service Technician who is prepared to restore power any time – day or night. A lifelong resident of Lake County, Paul creates amazing works of art in his spare time, and he feels blessed to work for SECO while raising a wonderful family. In 2004, Hurricanes Charley, Frances and Jeanne blazed paths through Florida, and Paul remembers working 16-hour days for two weeks straight during each hurricane. He credits the challenge of three devastating storms as the reason he aspired to be a SECO Service Tech. Paul believes his commitment to keeping the lights on for SECO members has a positive impact on his own family and the community – recognizing teachers, firefighters and law enforcement officers who serve the needs of the community as a whole.

 

 

 

SECO Contributes to Local Public Education Foundations October 2018

SECO CONTRIBUTES TO LOCAL PUBLIC EDUCATION FOUNDATIONS

 

SECO Energy’s 2018 back-to-school program has contributed $10,500 to local school districts in Citrus, Lake, Marion and Sumter Counties. These four counties are home to over 200,000 homes and businesses across the SECO Energy service territory.

 

CITRUS COUNTY

 

Citrus County Education Foundation October 2018 SECO News

 

LAKE COUNTY

 

Lake County Education Foundation October 2018 SECO News

 

MARION COUNTY

 

Marion County Education Foundation October 2018 SECO News

 

SUMTER COUNTY

 

Sumter County Education Foundation October 2018 SECO News

 

As your local not-for-profit electric cooperative, SECO Energy believes in bolstering the communities we serve by contributing financial support to local schools, dedicated educators and students.

 

Read the full October 2018 SECO News online.