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.

Sorry to get the cone in focus instead of the mantid. He wasn’t very big - yet.

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

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Hey can you like, come outside and feed me? My water needs changing.

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Ponderous borer (!) which helps break down dead pines & Douglas firs out this way. I don’t remember seeing one inside a door before until today (July 13, my lucky day). The females are even larger. The adults live for only one thing (sshh, gotta keep it classy). The grubs are enormous, living for years in fallen trees.

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More little visitors in my garden area. I have seen these red squirrels off and on over the years. Not every year. However, this year I have at least two red squirrels in my yard. At first I thought they were just baby/ juvenile squirrels with red on their fur, because they were young. However, it has been since March and they are still just as small and just as red. You can see the size difference between a regular squirrel here and the red squirrel. It is so small it can get into the mesh suet feeder like a small Downy woodpecker can. It just learned this trick last week. I switched the regular suet over to some suet that is made with a hot pepper formula. We will see if that stops the little red squirrel from eating all the suet up.


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When I had a couple of regular red squirrels hanging around I had very few grey ones. I haven’t seen one in a few years and now the grey numbers are way up. The red ones are smaller, but they’re a little more aggressive and territorial from my experience.

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Turkeys and trespassers. Caught trespassers like usual and enjoyed seeing all the turkeys and their young chicks.

20250715_170632

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Discovered a bee in my orchard with a very peculiar adornment… I wonder who’s keeping tabs on her

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https://youtu.be/U2GBYG5RwEI?si=2dh3mFlPzHjtBUUQ this is what i can find. Sad we have to get to this point.

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