Wildlife in our gardens

AndySmith · August 23, 2020, 6:16pm

Awesome shot !

Derby42 · August 24, 2020, 3:26pm

Not much garden here yet but this eagle was in a tree just outside the yard

Courtney · August 26, 2020, 1:39am

snowflake · September 6, 2020, 10:23pm

I need some tree frogs! Or some birds with a clue! Orchard is loaded with these grasshoppers. Not quite a plague of locusts but it feels like it.

k8tpayaso · September 7, 2020, 12:33am

I feel your pain. We have what we call cow birds but they are actually cattle egrets and if you can get them to come around they can do some damage to the plague. The other thing is domestic birds: i.e. Chickens or Guinea Fowl. I would love to have some of both but here if you let them free range you are feeding the raptors and coyotes!!!

JeremiahT · September 9, 2020, 8:39pm

Black Swallowtail Caterpillar on dill.

KSprairie · September 9, 2020, 9:03pm

How do you get rid of hornworms?

Feed em to your resident box turtle!!!

KSprairie · September 9, 2020, 9:08pm

I took a couple of short videos with my iPhone of her eating the hornworms, but don’t know how to load those.
She ate 3 HUGE hornworms and probably would have eaten more. Too bad those guys are always at the tops of the plants, and alas, the turtle is stuck on the ground.

snowflake · September 9, 2020, 10:27pm

We have some guineas, but also have a young Pyrenees that unfortunately thinks guineas are very fun to chase. So they don’t stay around the orchard long enough. Also, the smart hoppers are mostly staying up out of guinea range now.

BlueBerry · September 9, 2020, 11:26pm

Get rid of horn worms…toss them into the property of your nosy or ill tempered neighbor?

Or pretend they are those crackling little pops on the 4th of July as you launch them to the pavement at high speed?

Or…let the guys eat your tobacco and tomatoes…they’re probably not good for you anyhow!

KSprairie · September 10, 2020, 1:52am

BlueBerry you are too funny!

When my kids were little, I let them hunt for the hornworms and pick them off the tomato plants and squish them. The bright green liquid spurting out of their bodies was so gross, they couldn’t resist. I have to admit, I feel slightly bad about dispatching them. The moths that lay the eggs that turn into the hornworms are good pollinators, I assume. But as we know, hornworms can really do some damage to peppers and tomatoes. Now that I know my turtle friend loves eating them, I will look for her (she was hanging out right under the tomatoes) and feed her as many as she can eat.

jeremymillrood · September 10, 2020, 6:32pm

Florida standoff…

nil · September 15, 2020, 4:46pm

Does anybody recognize the species? I would like to know what it eats. It does not fly yet. I had to yell at my dog to keep him from pouncing on the little critter.

RichardRoundTree · September 16, 2020, 4:34am

It looks like an insect eater possibly? Maybe some ground up mealworm, bugs or pieces of a worm. Usually a small flat dish is best for water and try to put it in a box outside during the day hopefully where its parents can see it so they come grab it or feed it. If it is a seed eater for the young ones usually you need to crush up the seeds and mix in a grit

nil · September 16, 2020, 5:48am

When it dried off, it was an American Bushtit. It was able to flap two feet from the floor to the window sill in the spare room when dry, but no more than a foot when wet. I released it into our holly tree full of bushtitties. I figured the fledgling probably belongs to them. If it can evade the cats a while longer, it should survive.

PomGranny · September 19, 2020, 1:24pm

perfect.

PomGranny · September 19, 2020, 1:36pm

This is happening ‘near’ our garden . . . under the eaves of our porch.
A little bird was huddled in a corner, on a little 2" square at the top of an upright support. At first I thought it was a juvenile wren. Night after night ‘he’ was there just as the sun went down - and gone by the time I go out with my dogs in the morning.

Then one night, the noise of the door opening and the dogs must have scared him away. And he stayed gone for a week.

He returned a week later. I started noticing that he appeared to have ‘no head’. LOL No visible neck. He didn’t put his head under his wing, either. And I began to wonder if he could be a baby owl? He was too high up to get a better look.

Then one night I held my iPhone up high and took the best shot that I could.
And I think that my guess was correct! He appears to be an owl, indeed!

We call him ‘Hoot’ - and I am guessing (again) that he must be a barn owl, because of his choice of roost.

We are going to create a wood box that will give him a larger base to rest. I looked online and could not find an owl box made for Barn Owls. Screech Owls and others like boxes and people create them - and sell them on Etsy, etc.

Anyone know if we should bother with a ‘box’? It makes sense that if they like ‘open rafters’ of barns, they might not like being boxed in. ?

All ‘owl’ advice will be appreciated.
Or . . . if I’ve ‘mis-identified’ - please speak up!