Wildlife in our gardens

Nice looking oak snake almost got destroyed by the mower. Glad I saw him at the last second…

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He looks too much like a copperhead to suit me.

Not near as pretty as a copperhead lol.

We get the oak snake pretty regular here. Believe me. We get a lot of cottonmouths too and I kill them. Say what you will. I’m not a fan of any poison snake and I kill them. I don’t think the copperhead finds its way down this far if I remember correctly.

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I saw this huge moth last evening. Must have been 5 inches across. Looks like it just emerged from the ground and couldn’t fly. Hope it doesn’t leave any of its caterpillars on my trees. They must be huge to yield such a large moth.

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Polyphemus Moth (Antheraea polyphemus)
That one’s a female.
The caterpillars do get big and they have a very wide range of host plants that they can feed on. Antheraea polyphemus If you find any caterpillars, you can just put it on almost any wild tree and it will likely be fine eating it.

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I’d like 1000 of these caterpillars on my neighbor’s maple tree that keeps spreading over into my yard then :smiley:

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Found this on one of my apple trees

It’s a Cecropia moth caterpillar. My family from San Antonio was here so “Goldie” was packed off to SA with lots of apple leaves to hopefully provide education for the 5 grandchildren.

Here’s a picture of what it should become

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Having dinner. Ate every leaf off of my green beans and sunflowers. Nice enough to leave the flowers behind…

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A pair of American goldfinches have been visiting in the evening

Mr. Squirrel is well-fed. All the oil in the sunflower seed is doing wonders for his coat. He has zero shame and will sass you if you get too close.

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I see you have rats too…LOL

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Weeded and mulched an old high bush blueberry patch today and in amongst a fortress of thistle I found these little guys.



I’m thinking sparrows?

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Now that you’ve found the nest, keep an eye out for the parents coming to feed 'em. Might want to keep some distance so they don’t spook & leave the young 'uns to starve. Seems a deep cup for a sparrow, but my experience is limited to species that live Way Out West.

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American tree sparrow I would guessimage

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A pileated woodpecker (?) taking an ash bath in our firepit:

Video with sound:
https://bit.ly/2YtMrOL

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Cool! I believe that is a Northern Flicker woodpecker, one of my favorite birds. Never seen them do that, but there must be reason for it.

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I’ve seen several species of birds do that. Maybe it helps with mites/fleas?

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I’ve got Quail in the hood…JCS_2106

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I always heard they did it for mites but maybe fleas also?

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