Wildlife in our gardens

That is a pretty funny saying. Never heard that one before.
And - Man! - he must brush a lot. Guess it comes from chewing on all those bones?

We put out a Hav a Heart trap last night - for the first time. Trying to catch whoever is messing with my nectarine tree. But - no ‘takers’ yet. I suspect raccoons . . . maybe possums? We baited it with some lamb chop bones, some left-over sausage & rice, and my husband added a couple of sardines. - And a nectarine. Any suggestions as to what might work best?

Bait…
I think peels or parts of a very ripe cantaloupe put out right before dark , the aroma is irresistible.

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You know - I thought I remembered someone saying ‘cantaloupe’! But my husband and his 'expert on everything ’ brother would probably not have taken my advice. ! :roll_eyes:

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Momma Bunny had a litter in the herb garden above. There were sightings of at least two babies. This one got spooked by the morning watering and fell down a couple of steps. He couldn’t clear the 5.5 inches jump so a half-step had to be constructed. Watch him struggle in the video below. He did make it safely back into the nest at the end.

The whole family has been pretty good. They stick to the grass and clover with an occasional sunflower leaf nibble.

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The baits you have used are good for opossum, raccoon.
Smelly meat things , rice may attract birds as by catch.
( actually that sounds like a good meal , to me, …may find me in such a trap. If so be kind )
If they are eating nectarines ?
Nectarines may be good bait ?
The cantaloupe idea …
A good A good excuse to buy cantaloupe… maybe catch a critter . ? Often works.
It’s the fresh aroma that bings them to the trap.
Fresh bait placed in the evening. High humidity over night, = aroma.
Making like a nectarine/ cantaloupe smoothie pored around trap ,to increase aroma, in the evening , …irresistible …

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The small pond that I put in when I was making my stone patio has now attracted a pair of beautiful dragonflies. They have been hanging out here for the last 3 days straight. Couldn’t get both of them to sit still long enough for a family portrait though:

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Anole shedding its skin. My son wanted to collect some but the lizard eats it off so he was disappointed!

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Cattle egrets always chasing me when I cut the grass to pick up the bugs.



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crows and ravens do the same here when farmers cut the hay in aug. eating the grasshoppers and field mice that get chopped by the mower.

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That is huge!!!

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The mystery of the holes in the garden with eggs ha been solved! It’s a turtle! And maybe a fox is digging them up. We saw her in action today.

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Another snake this time on my front porch. I always look at the pupils, in the Southeast USA I believe non-poisonous snakes should have a round pupil where poisonous snakes I believe should have a cat eye, but don’t take my word for it, and I’m only talking about snakes in southeast USA, there are definitely poisonous snakes in the world with round pupils so you definitely need to know what the snake is before getting close enough to take a picture of its eyes. This one’s obviously a non-poisonous probably a gray rat snake so I just let him be and he slithered under my house.

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I must have had a big hatching of these. I’ve seen several from tiny (half inch long) to this one that was just about an inch or so.

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Another batch of bluebirds ready to head out of the nest.

Curious and hungry baby wren.


Frog took over bluebird house

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Every few days one of these break through my haskap netting defenses. They all find out it is not so easy to exit when you are freaking out. You can see the guilt in his face

See that net there bird? That’s there for a reason…

At first it may be just a few but once they discover them we are talking a dozen plus that would strip the bush in no time.

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I had that type of netting birds always got stuck in it and in tangles easily. I bought from Americannettings.com birds rarely stuck and easy to put on and off without tearing

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i dont get it. 3 of my haskaps fruited heavilly and i didnt need netting. nothing bothered them. my cherries either. had some cherries fall off the tree fully ripened and nothing touched them on the ground either. have all kinds of birds in my big pines. maybe the flash tape i put out was enough to deter them or they found something else in the wild thats more tasty. not complaining though. :wink:

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There is a difference in netting…I’ve killed 3 birds in the gooseberry patch this year and a 1/2 inch net.

Found this little guy today hunting for bugs or mice in the volunteer squash growing in the compost pile.

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