One of the best things about creating a garden is all the critters you attract.
I’ve already talked quite a bit about the California quail and their babies visiting the garden.
The other day I found this cool spider hanging out among the bells of Ireland. Does anyone know what type it is?
This morning I was watering and noticed something big scurrying away out of the corner of my eye. It appears I had soaked a poor praying mantis. It climbed up on some Convolvulus to dry off and catch something tasty.
For a while I was lamenting the fact that no hummingbirds were visiting my garden. I’m happy to say they finally found me. This little guy is often perched on the Cantua buxifolia where he can quickly defend the nearby Nicotiana mutabilis from bees and rival hummingbirds. Kind of funny that I went out of my way to plant lots of orange and red flowering plants to attract the hummingbirds and their favorite is the pink and white Nicotiana.
So what are your favorite garden critters? Anything exciting visiting your garden this summer?
Hummingbirds are a staple since we have several species of salvia and a sizable Iochroma cyaneum. They also like the Buddleia, Centranthus and Lavatera maritima, none of which have tubular flowers. I have two Nicotiana mutabilis as well, but haven’t seen them visiting it.
Our back property line is a creek so we have many visitors here both welcome and unwelcome. Egrets, herons and kingfishers are occasional and welcome visitors. And I like to see the paper-punch-like holes in the rose leaves from the leafcutter bees (though I’ve yet to catch them in the act). Go, Bees!
There’s a strip of grass along an active rail line between my work and a Kroger store. Chiggers must be everywhere in that tall grass. Other critters was a racoon that has seemed to move on, but was scurrying up in my eaves several weeks ago.
The dogs treed a racoon in the backyard this week. Hopefully he was just a temporary visitor and not after my fish.
Hmmmm we had a Black Bear on Memorial Day Weekend. It was great to see him but I’d rather he did not make a return visit!
Eeesh. Some of you have some scary critters. I’m happy with the ones I have. I don’t want any visits from chiggers or bears! My town is actually called Valley of the Bears but there haven’t been any bears here for a very long time.
No more grizzlies that LO was named for, but there are definitely still black bear in the Irish Hills and MdO.
And the birds you mentioned wanting to see, I’ve seen all in MdO at one time or another. The Chestnut-Backed Chickadee was a treat for me as it was the first I’d ever seen.
Hopefully I don’t have any black bears visiting!
Since I live near a big field I did have bluebirds in the spring which was exciting. I guess that makes up for the lack of chickadees. It would be nice if some chickadees and titmice visit but it seems unlikely in this part of town.
How close did the quail let you come to get that picture? They don’t seem that concerned about your presence. That picture of the mantis is pretty wonderful. It looks like it’s leading the morning glory in song. (“Oooooooo…….Lets try that again.”)
My neighborhood is just too urban for much more than the expected: wrens, starlings, robins, pigeons, crows and seagulls. Haven’t seen any squirrels this year, which is strange. In open spaces the swallows are swooping everywhere. There is a hummingbird with a red throat who sits on a power line in front of the parking lot next door and sings, pretty much everyday.
The adult quail are fairly used to me and if I am already out in the yard weeding or taking pictures in the garden some of them will come fairly close. If I make any sudden moves they take off. The babies are paranoid though (and rightly so as most of them will be eaten before they reach adulthood). I was only able to get that close by being inside at my living room window and waiting for them to arrive (I saw them coming from across the street). I had to stay perfectly still.
Even though I am pretty much in the country I don’t get too many exciting birds because there aren’t many trees in my neighborhood. I’d love to see the western titmice, chickadees, nuthatches, and woodpeckers but they tend to live in areas with a lot of conifers and my part of town is very nearly treeless.
Our property backs onto a nature area so I get some wildlife. Mostly birds & bees attracted by our yard of flowers. Besides hummingbirds, I have a pair of morning doves who like to walk the decomposed granite path in my front yard garden. I also have lots of gold finches which is a favorite of mine. The gold finches love the onethera “hookeri” and rudbeckia “goldstrum and verbena bonareinsis. We have lots of squirrels in the neighborhood which drive all of us nuts because they are constantly planting – pots are a favorite for them to tear up. Thirty years ago I marveled when I saw a squirrel but now we are overrun. I remodeled most of our garden this year and with all the compost I seem to have attracted a mole. We have possums in the neighborhood also and something that has been digging some rather large holes. Haven’t figured that one out yet altho skunks have been known to trash a yard overnight in our area. My natural style garden is planted with hummers and butterflies in mind and I try to use a lot of natives. As we live in the Sacramento area, I also try to keep the water needs of plants low. Favorites of the hummers are the zaucheneria and a plant that I got from Annie’s last year – Dicliptera suberecta
“Uraguayan Firecracker Plant”. I love to watch a hummer go for the flowers and then toss them off the plant when they are through eating. The Dicliptera grew fast and spread nicely over the winter. So far, deer haven’t moved into our neighborhood but I would not be surprised if they show up here someday.
I saw some Dicliptera for sale the other day and almost bought it. But I need to figure out a good spot for it first.
That’s some fine photography Kaveh!
Here in rural Ontario I am inundated with wildlife – some of it not so desirable!
Most frequent visitors at this time of year are snapping turtles, blue herons, kingfishers, garter snakes, lots of toads and frogs, rabbits (arghhh!) and red, gray and black squirrels that love the black walnut trees and tulip bulbs.
Unfortunately there are insects that bite, voles and moles, chipmunks (that are cute but tunnel everywhere and eat new growth of bulbs and other plants) and groundhogs (that make huge dens and dig giant holes with multiple entrances and exits).
There are often raccoons that can be very destructive. They tend to have their babies in our barn…. Occasionally we see muskrats and opossums.
We hear coyotes and see wild turkeys as well. Of course there are an abundance of Canada geese. The other day I had to wait for about 2-3 minutes while about 20 of them slowly crossed the road I was traveling on.
Deer can be the cause of some pretty terrible traffic accidents here too. (or are the drivers the cause?)
Luckily I do not have too many biting insects here. I got a few mosquito bites last week but they are very rare here.
I’m kind of surprised I don’t have any lizards as they are pretty common in CA. But luckily no squirrels. We have ground squirrels here in CA too which are even worse than the tree type as far as destructiveness goes.