Wildlife in our gardens

Latest arrival in my yard. An invasive iguana resting on my avocado tree. It is decimating my Pakistan mulberry tree because it feeds on the leaves. The tree looks almost bare…


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Eastern milk snake. They are more brown and less reddish than other varieties of milk snakes.

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They’ll eat all your brocolli too. They would tear through my mother’s garden when I was a kid. Like a deer that can climb.

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Robber fly doing its thing. Pretty cool.

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is that a type of jay? we have the blue and canadian jays here.

Steller’s jay, they are all over the Rockies with various subspecies, that is definitely the prettiest subspecies though with the blue in the crest

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I would’ve guessed Corn snake

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I have had some new visitors this summer. We’ve always had animals around, some with a very low profile - who I’m sure I have never seen. Earlier this spring there was an eagle who hung around for about a month. One morning he was about 50 yards from my bedroom window, working on a ‘find’, and I was able to get a picture. Since then - I’ve seen the usual fox, possum, raccoon, beaver . . . nutria (unfortunately) . . . and then, what appeared to be a mink! That was a first.

'Got a pic of this little rascal, who was waltzing across my backyard in broad daylight! When he spotted me he made a b-line back under the deck. He kept poking his little head out, to see if the coast was clear! Mr. Groundhog and I will live together in peace - unless he decides to start dining on my tomatoes.

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@chriso

That iguano may be doing you a favor and you will know within 45 days. Is that an everbearing mulberry by chance? If so that and a pruning will simulate dormancy. I have cut mulberry to the ground and they fully recovered in 2 years.

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i chopped my Riverview mul. back to the main trunk back in Apr. it has since set alot of new branches but still no fruit. its 4 years old and still hasnt given me a single fruit. if i was good at grafting mulberry i would have grafted it over to i.e by now. has a 3in dia. trunk. should have fruited by now. my i.e Barkslip grafted for me is doing well. about 5ft. now but no fruit yet either. ive seen people getting fruit formation on mul. rooted cuttings yet i cant get 1 off a 12ft tree.

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I’ve watched that video. My tree is a Pakistan mulberry. And yes it tries to regrow leaves once they’ve been stripped, but the beast mows them down to bare wood as soon as they unfurl. It’s exactly like having a deer that climbs trees like was said before. I can’t even catch it to relocate it. It is lightning quick…

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At the front door rather than in the garden, but I have little doubt this wheat-straw mantid will find better hunting on the other side of the house. Have seen this or its green or brown counterparts every year since we introduced ducks to the yard in 2008, enriching the soil & luring plenty of wildlife I had rarely seen even as a child growing up at the edge town.

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A pair of Merlin falcon nestlings, likely pushed out by their sibling(s).

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