Wildlife in our gardens

Wow that’s amazing, it took me a while to see it.

I think this year I have a few praying mantises.

2 in the same vicinity, I hope they don’t eat each other

Zooming in

And another one

A third one

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Nice Katydid…(but they eat a lot of leaves).

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Definitely a first for me!!!


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Did he get lost in the storm!!!

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We’re not far from the bay, so he could have walked, or hitched a ride on wife’s car because she went to the beach yesterday

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free dinner!

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Hahaha

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Snack maybe….he’s missing a little claw…. Hahaha

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He has both claws, one is disproportionately larger

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Praying mantis on dahlia

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There were honeybees all over our goldenrod and asters until I got out the camera. Wanna play a game? Find one.

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No problem…honeybee on the aster bloom just above the left-most goldenrod bloom.

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Another visit from Robert Cat at the beaver pond. The beavers have to be careful now that the ponds are frozen over.

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Bobby paid me a visit too this summer while I was grafting walnuts. I had my back to the area he was bedded down in so I cant say he was there the whole time for sure, but he was there 5 minutes later when I finally looked and he wasnt in any kind of hurry. I actually watched him for several minutes before deciding to leave him be. I went back to the house and then figured I might return with phone/camera a few minutes later and lo of he hadnt moved in the least. When I walked back there I was 40 ft away. While grafting, I was mlre like 25 ft away with my back to him mindlessly grafting away. You can see the walnut I was grafting in the foreground of some of these. For perspective, the grass and forbs are about 24-30” high. When I first saw the eyes shining back at me they were low to the ground. I thought it was a groundhog since theres a large network of burrows nearby. Then he stood up and I realized what it was! I think it may have been possibly staking out the groundhogs. You never know what youll see at 1 AM out in the orchard!


IMG_7170

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We’ve been recording the bobcats on the game-cams for maybe 5-8 years now? Both the bobcats and the coyotes are recorded on a regular basis, but we’ve never seen them “in the flesh”. Wish we could say the same for the black bears, they show up uninvited on our back deck (solely our fault as we never bring the bird feeders in on a timely basis in the spring). I have video from the orchard of a fox challenging a plywood cut-out coyote, it was kind of funny. Those are some pretty cool photo’s! Okay, I have to ask, why on earth are you grafting at 1a.m.!?

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short answer: because Im nuts.

long answer: days are too full of work, parenting, etc. to spend time on my pathological fruit obsession

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Actually the second bobcat Ive seen “in the flesh”. 1st one was through my screen door. Silver Vine - #3 by hobilus


Ive had bears a bunch of times. Often a sow and cub would come through. I watched the sow scramble up into a spindly autumn olive bush and eat herself silly. Later I went and looked at the bush more closely and there wasn’t a stem on it much over an inch thick. Amazing agility. Last year had a pretty sizeable boar come and snatch the bird feeder right outside the kitchen window. I had several bushels of fruit- apples, pears, persimmons- just inside the screened porch. Really glad he settled for the bird feeder!

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Not my backyard but the local beach. These Black Brants migrated 1800 miles from north Canada. There where hundreds for about 1/4 mile along the beach. Very load wind sound when they where flying

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These silly ducks come every year, nest in our blueberries creek side, then upon hatch take off down to lake Washington to raise the babies. It’s our 18th year here and the ducks never missed a spring yet. I know it’s probably the original duck’s great grandchildren, but I still enjoy them either way.

Quack quack. Mommy duck will sit on the steeple of our roof and quack at us if we are not home to give her a small cup of cracked corn meal. She is like a dog that way. Daddy duck has always stood off and been wary until we vacate the area. Mommy duck will eat out of our hand if we let her.

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they know where they are safe. my aunt feeds them at her place. they will go out and swim around you when you’re in the lake. they nibble on your toes when you sit on the beach, trying to get a treat from you.

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