Wildlife in our gardens

You could have her till the garden…

I think part of the problem with borders is they need lots of physical exercise but also a mental challenge.

They certainly are a breed that needs activity. Our mutt is happy to go for a car ride, walk, or loaf around. But the Border (Moxie) needs to run. Thankfully I have been able to focus her on playing Frisbee which can be done in the relative comfort of our back yard. 30 min a day seems to be enough to keep her happy. Regardless she is the most neurotic dog I have ever owned.

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We have a border collie mix and she can be a pain at times. They do like to have a job, her job in the morning is to wake up my son “Go get Dominic!” and then she is off to the races. If she sees me putting on exercise clothing, she gets super excited. If I have to tell her ‘No’, the look of disappointment is almost heart breaking. I do try to get her out as much as I can, but some injuries have slowed me down. A good game of fetch in the afternoon does help.

And if a rabbit gets in the backyard at night, forget about sleep! She wants to get it and lets us know.

Small metal spring mouse traps in the holes that she is digging…it will work, I speak from experience.

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if there might be areas you won’t want them digging(newly planted trees, ornamentals, etc), you could mix a little bit of their poop into the surrounding soil. Dogs will not dig where it smells of their poop.

one instance where everything truly is “greener at the other side”.

while you want your moose out of your property, ours are well-behaved and whimsically ornamental.
also immune to mange and bald-spots :grin:

on a real-life if not macabre note, thought i’d post this mini-safari i witnessed years ago

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvNPRYawP14

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Mrs. Ladybug

Mr. Grasshopper

Blueberry thief (mockingbird)

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Mr. and Mrs. Redtail Hawk are setting up residence in our neighborhood :slight_smile:

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Ladybug laying eggs

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I have a pair of red-shouldered hawks.

Katy

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This was 15 minutes ago. Don’t worry…I promise I wasn’t squeezing him as hard as it looks and I let him go in 1 minute and he was fine.

YOU WILL NEVER BELIEVE HOW I CAME TO BE HOLDING THIS bobwhite quail (seriously, my favorite bird).

I walk out into my orchard today and there are a whole big covey of quail that take off and, of course, scare me to death as they will do if you aren’t expecting it. Well, I noticed one didn’t fly off. I walked over couldn’t believe what happened. I had a really small (like 3 ft by 5 ft) piece of bird netting that I tore off last year after picking the fruit on a tree that I had covered with netting. I had just left it under the tree on the ground.Sure enough, this poor guy had somehow crawled up under the piece of net and couldn’t get out! All the ones that flew away were apparently trying to help or keep him company!!! :slight_smile:

BTW…he is really small. Its hard to believe he was born this year and already has full feathers, but he is too small to be a year old adult. A bit confusing.

Again, he is free and fine and there is no more netting in my orchard. I love bobwhite’s so this was fun for me.

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Great pic Kevin! Year before last I went out early to water and there was a baby catbird stuck in my blueberry nets. I got him out and brought him over and set him down under the fence where mom and dad were squawking away. For the next 2 hours as I watered, one of the parents followed me around wherever I went, scolding me nonstop from 2 to 3 feet away. I did not net last year partly because of this experience but I think I lost over half my blueberry crop. The nets are going up this year. . .

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Had this beautiful guy at my Giant White BofP this morning. We have lots of theses lovely Hooded Orioles on our property because of all our palm trees. Photo isn’t very clear because I snuck up to an upstairs window to take the photo through the window.

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If Auburn can train an eagle to fly around the football field maybe you can get your hawk to go after the blueberry thief.

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Funny you should mention that, Bill. I just watched this fascinating story on CBS morning news this morning, about California vineyards using falcons to scare away birds, mainly Starlings:

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Thank you for the suggestions about the dogs! I may give it a try. In the meantime, I did put up some wire border fencing.

A rabbit and a couple of birds in our feeder.

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My yard is still not quite rabbit proof, I still need to staple 1" mesh along the bottom of the wooden fence sections. So it is possible for them to get in, but exit is quite complicated.

This morning I found in my yard a rabbit head separated from the body by about a foot, and the body was missing the breast and forelegs. I suspect it was the red tail hawks – because the owls would have cracked the skull for the brains.

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Any chance an owl caught the rabbit?