Two hummingbirds doing their mating dance, when they fly up and down in big swoops and make a whooshing noise.

We have raised several swallowtail and monarch caterpillars to cocoon stage, then watched the chrysalis open and a butterfly emerge.

I once rescued a toad from a snake.

Praying Mantises and "Singer" spiders. We would feed crickets to the spiders, same with the toad that had taken up residence on our patio at our old place. The kids would get a kick out of that!

I love reading all these responses, and I'm especially glad to know that spiders and snakes are appreciated by so many. As for the coolest natural thing I've ever seen in my garden . . .

My daughter Gillian died on Memorial Day 2001. She was my partner in the garden, as well as in most other things, and for a long time I couldn't do a thing outdoors. Eventually I forced myself to mow the lawn, but the flower beds quickly yielded to the weeds, and the yard we'd loved assumed an appearance of decay.

Part of the garden is a old well that we had filled with rocks topped with soil. Jill and I planted it every year, and she took special pleasure in that spot of color in the center of a slab of stone. That spot, too reverted to weeds.

Then in the summer of 2003 a forget-me-not plant appeared on the outside of the stone slab. There were no other forget-me-nots in my garden, and our property is surrounded by woods. The plant bloomed, and then fell over toward the well, seeding it. The next spring the well bloomed in bright blue and white. I have no doubt the forget-me-nots and their beautiful message came directly from Jill. I know she wasn't asking me not to forget her, but not to forget the garden and the joy we took in it.

Here's how it looked that first year:

{{gwi:271156}}

And here's how it looked a week ago, after a shower of apple blossom petals.

{{gwi:271157}}

Mama rabbit making a nest.
Not so interesting I know but this is. My daughter had two preying mantis babies in her bedroom! Very weird and I've yet to figure it out. She has an window unit ac so maybe it has to do with that,holes you know. I hope to find more. I took the little cuties straight to the garden.

Carla

Leafcutter bees collecting building material from our rose foliage. There are other 'cooler' things in the yard but I am always on the lookout for leafcutters. They are fascinating to watch and sometimes hilarious. Watching a small one trying to carry a too large piece home had Deb and I laughing so hard :)

Alisande, what a wonderful memory you have shared. I feel priviledged to have heard it. Thank you.

I agree with greenhaven, Alisande that was so moving. Thanks for sharing that.

THE coolest thing was when I saw the Northern Lights out over Lake Erie (my yard backs up to the lake). Second coolest was last week early early in the morning I saw a Great Horned Owl fly by and perch in the tree in our neighbor's yard.

Rain. I hope to see it again. It was beautiful then but this is now.

last year...baby bunnies in the middle of my yard...I took them to a wildlife rescue place. This year we have a family of bird with 2 babies. Last week they were testing out their wings and I found the two babies trying to be invisible in the middle of my climbing rose. They were so cute!

Last year we had a big banana spider with a huge web in the front flower bed. Fall came and it spun its egg sac and disappeared. We waited all winter to see what came out and then somehow missed the babies leaving.

Yesterday I noticed a small banana spider with a small web in almost the same place as the mama's from last year. Very cool!

Every year a hummingbird makes a nest in my hoya in my entryway. There are always 2 eggs. I look forward to it every spring. I really want to move that hoya because it gets too wet, but I don't dare.

{{gwi:271158}}

About 3 or 4 years ago I was "adopted" by a seemingly lonely young female Cardinal. She followed me around the yard chirping and squawking at me...daily! She became quite tame and would fly to my deck when I sat outside. When I made my lasagna shade garden I had to relocate one of the bird feeders. She was not happy and let me know it! Once I was done with the garden I put the feeder back where it belonged. She sat at the feeder and chirped and warbled. This little girl really kept me company many early mornings and late evenings. What a sweetheart!

What a great subject! I live in a suburb of Boston, and we don't ordinarily have wildlife in the area, but one morning several years ago my husband looked out the kitchen window and lo and behold, there is the middle of the lawn was a baby bunny. The bunny was so tiny, hubby thought it was a leaf, until it jumped and showed his little cottontail. Well, bunny stayed in my garden for about a month, living in the thicket of my black-eyed susans. He would dine on my husband's green beans and the grass. We would go sit on the patio after dinner, and bunny would come out and dine. Then one day he was gone. It was like a little visitor came to give us such amusement for a short time. I still wonder where that bunny came from!

A garden brings all sorts of amazing wonders, surprises, and contentment. I love to walk and sit in my garden early in the morning...the tranquility is unexplainable. But I know you other gardeners know what I'm saying. Peace.

I thought it fascinating to watch this Dragonfly for hours. They are at natures mercy for much longer than I imagined. This photo was taken about 11:AM and it finally flew at dawn the next morning. When the wings open they have turned a metalic bronze and when they fly they are a beautiful sparkling deep bronze. Wish I could see them turn to their final "golden gate red".
{{gwi:270865}}
{{gwi:270866}}

Once a 6 point buck took a walk through my yard, then took a nap in the neighbor's yard.

One summer I asked my mother-in-law what was growing in the corner of her garden (it looked suspicious) and she said she didn't know, it just popped up there and grew really fast. Upon smelling it, my suspicions were confirmed. It was a pretty good sized pot plant. She was horrified.

Currently, my mom and dad have a bird's nest in one of their cholla plants. Here's a picture.

{{gwi:271120}}

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:271120}}

I love watching the mama deer and her twin fawns in the morning. They wander through the meadow and come up to the creek for a drink of water. The babies are so cute with their spotted coatsm and it's fun to watch them playing and running around.

I do'nt know how natural it was but we had an African Weaver bird in our garden. A long way from home it's now in an aviary on Long Island.

{{gwi:232169}}

{{gwi:271161}}

{{gwi:204373}}

{{gwi:201788}}

Either this:

{{gwi:271165}}

or this:

{{gwi:271167}}

Alisande, I want you to know your message is lovely and very touching and filled with love. I don't want to bring up bad feelings for you so I'll leave it at that is a special beautiful place in your garden.

Carla

Thank you, Carla, and Greenhaven and Jackie. I've been most fortunate to have had many "signs" from Jill, and dream visits from her. Many of the signs have been about plants or animals. (The first of these involved a rose, Sir Thomas Lipton.) I often say that Gillian is as creative and loving in spirit form as she was on this earth.

I really appreciate all your words.

Alisande, My sister watched John Edwards..you know that psychic guy..which is not the message here, someone in his audience was. This couple had lost a child..the husband was at the show and his wife was at work. The husband was still so angry and it had been 12 years. John asked him to call his wife at work, and she was much more at peace with the loss than the husband. She explained that for her she realized that there were "only blessings". She felt blessed to have had this child in her life. That helped me alot. I have not lost a child, but in recent years I had lost many family members including my mother. I got so sad. Just this past year hubby and I attended 3 funerals for loved ones in 7 months, two of which were his Mother and 5 months and one day his Uncle. When I think of my passed loved ones I think about the blessing part and sure has helped me.

My deepest condolences and hugs from another Mom.

Well when I found this little critter I thought he looked awesome but also fierce. I knew better than to touch him (hence the leaf).

{{gwi:271169}}

This is a Saddleback who causes great pain when touched.

Natures strange blends:
{{gwi:271171}}

Blue Tailed Skink (great bug eater!!)

{{gwi:271172}}

But perhaps the most relaxing and amazing thing is just watching the Koi and FanTails. They have quite the personality!

{{gwi:240624}}

Truthfully there is nothing I enjoy more than when my blue birds have babies. What a joy to look in on them weekly and see them grow. The parents are so familiar with me they don't even fuss when I open the house to peek.

I don't know if it was the coolest, but it sure was one of those if I only had my video camera working moments. I could have had an entry on America's Funniest Home Videos or some such program or a link here to Youtube. It happened a couple years ago in late summer/early fall. There were two of my friends and myself talking in the dining room, and Snooper, one of the cats was perched on the cat tree looking out the window. All of a sudden, Snooper became very fixed in his stare at something. We wondered what he was looking at. We looked out the window at where he was gazing and saw a squirrel. This squirrel was getting into my Earth Boxes which had the tomatoes. He grabbed a tomato almost as big as he was in his mouth and started across the yard. He went over to the edge where I have some trellis supports for some gangly OGRs and climbed up the trellis and ran along the top, still with the tomato in his mouth. Then he screwed up. He tried to jump from the trellis to the nearby tree. His little aircraft was overloaded and didn't clear the runway. He crashed dropping the tomato and falling into the rose bush. I think it was into the Souvenir du Alphonse Lavallee. It was hilarious to watch it. If only I had had my camera going. I may never see that kind of thing again, but I still have tomatoes in my Earth Boxes, and the squirrels are still there, as fat as ever from all the peanuts they ate over winter, so one never knows.

The return of toads to our garden this year has been cool!

F.L.

Last summer I bent down to sniff a huge bloom of Veteran's Honor and discovered a little green frog sunning himself within the petals. I don't know who was more surprised, him or me!
K

{{gwi:271173}}

In my parents' back yard. This buck visits alot and one day the neighbor's cat joined him. We saw it ourselves and Dad emailed me the photo.

I would say all of the baby spade foot toads that come out after the spring rains. theyre just so itsy bitsy it adorable!

We have a hawk that likes to frequent our walnut tree. So do the many squirrels that live in the neighborhood. The squirrels decided to ban together and beat up the hawk. It was quite humerous watching the hunted chase away the hunter.

A hummingbird flying toward me and zooming unexpectedly THROGH my hair.
Last year my DH and I watched two baby rabbits attempting to get a peach from a lower branch of the tree. It was hilarious! Afterwards they began to play - I had no idea they could jump so high.
~Natalie

Last summer I found this beautiful Regal Moth almost the size of my hand. He took flight once his wings dried. Had never seen one before and haven't seen one since.

{{gwi:271174}}

And just yesterday sitting on my trellis of my almost decimated Climber. Was this cute little Grey Tree Frog. Only about an inch long. Hopefully he got a belly full of aphids.

{{gwi:271175}}

Timber, GREAT closeup of the moth! Kinda makes you want to pet his fuzzy little head.

Timberohio what a FANTASTIC shot of the Regal Moth!

Where in Ohio are you?

Down south, in the hills of Vinton County. Just east of Chillicothe.

I have a few pics of him. But my favorite is the closeup of his fuzzy face and beady eyes.

Here's another one showing the coloring on his wings.
{{gwi:271176}}

I'm new to this forum and have to say how touched I am by all the wonderful stories and amazing photos that have been posted. I have always loved watching nature and have been lucky enough to capture a few cute photos myself.
{{gwi:271177}}
{{gwi:271178}}
{{gwi:271179}}
{{gwi:271180}}
and on of my all time favs, my son when he was little...
{{gwi:271181}}

I couldn't resist, here are a few more
{{gwi:271183}}
{{gwi:271185}}
{{gwi:271187}}
{{gwi:271190}}
{{gwi:271192}}

Me, too. Love everyone's pictures!

A pollen orgy in a sunflower:

{{gwi:271193}}

Frost on the last rose:

{{gwi:271194}}

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder (I love spiders):

{{gwi:271195}}

A Red Eft:

{{gwi:271196}}

Hawk/Sphinx Moth ("hummingbird moth"):

{{gwi:271197}}

Dewdrops on a rose leaf:

{{gwi:271198}}

Grasshopper on my finger:

{{gwi:271199}}

The miracle of reproduction :-)

{{gwi:271201}}

Bravo! Applause, Applause! Everyone's photos were fabulous. Thank you for making my day.

Pam

Gosh, ya'lls macros reminded me of some of mine, although they don't even begin to compare.

For all you macro-shooters, what lenses are you using? I only have close-up filters for my Canon lenses, and am in the market for a good quality macro lens that won't break the bank.

I love the regal moth, and the hummingbird moth, too! I would love them more if I didn't know they came form those nasty hornworms on my maters....

Hummingbird moth:

{{gwi:271202}}

Unknown moth...anyone? Anyone?:

{{gwi:271203}}

Emerging treehoppers; I used to have a really cool audio clip of a treehoper call...can't find it anymmore. :o(
{{gwi:271204}}

Technically not my garden, per se, but pretty dang cool nonetheless: barn swallows

{{gwi:271205}}

Somedays this wasn't so cool but this day it was. This was right after he figured out we were watching him through the living room window, about a foot from his nose! I have a bunch of him and his yearling friend who wandered close for several days.

{{gwi:271206}}

And this, though not a macro, is still a cool thing in my "new" garden. All the rest were from our old place.

Unknown dragonfly...anyone? Anyone?

{{gwi:271207}}

Hey, check this out! This page has a little about the treehoppers, although mine were in a Wafer Ash (or Common Hop Tree).

Further down the page is a tiny video of an amorous treehopper, complete with audio. WAY cool!

Here is a link that might be useful: page with treehopper mating call

A few weeks ago I was spraying water in my garden when 2 hummingbirds began zooming in and out of the spray of water. At first I thought they were chasing each other, but then one landed in a little puddle I was creating and began vigorously washing himself!

Amazing shot of the mammoth moth! I love the shots with all of the baby grasshoppers and of the tree frogs in the daylilies too. Beautiful pictures of the snake. The shots of the orange eft and hummingbird moth are beautiful as well.

The coolest thing I've seen in my garden is a bobcat, but there's lot of other wild things I've seen there too: a mink, gray foxes, and many birds and insects.

Female carpenter bee
{{gwi:271209}}

Male carpenter bee
{{gwi:271210}}

click on thumbnail to enlarge
Male courting female
{{gwi:271141}}
{{gwi:271142}}

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail{{gwi:271143}}

Honeybees{{gwi:271144}}
{{gwi:271145}}

Turkey. I wasn't sure if these were actually wild and tamed by feeding or escapees from a farm.
{{gwi:271217}}

Snapping turtle{{gwi:271149}}

Great pictures and if you have some of rain, I would like to see those. I am trying to remember what that was like, rain. It has been a while, a long while. I remember a few summers ago, maybe in 2000-2001, there was a lot of rain. Now there is none. So strange.

Two years ago every time I would go into one of my gardens, a bird would fly out of it. I must have been dim or something, but did not realize she was a mommy and was leading me away from this:

{{gwi:271219}}

This April we had wild turkey visiting us. She would be in the yard early in the morning. Then one day I scared her while trying to take a picture and she has not been back...at least we haven't seen her.

Greenhaven, I use a Raynox DCR-250, which easily attaches to the lens of my Panasonic Lumix FZ5. It's made in Japan and can produce some great stuff. So far I'm not in the "great stuff" league, but I've seen some stunning pix from other photographers. Like this guy. He has taken the time to set up optimum lighting conditions, among other things (including a tripod). This makes a huge difference, given the practically non-existant depth of field you have to work with at this degree of magnification.

I, on the other hand, hold the camera up to my face in natural light, shooting 20 shots for every keeper if I'm lucky. Still, I feel I've accomplished something just for having climbed part of the steep learning curve that comes with this lens. I love using it, and even put it to work photographing manufacturers' marks on antique demi-tasse silver spoons when I was thinking of selling them. The marks were impossible to decipher until I did this.

Raynox makes a DCR-150 as well. It's easier to use because it doesn't magnify quite so much.

Hope this helps!

Susan

Lizards and praying mantids. To me it's sign that there is a working food chain going on in the garden. If I ever saw a snake or toad/frog, I'd be thrilled, but it won't happen.

'Possums, raccoons, and skunks are common, but I don't enjoy them quite so much. One of them--not sure which--digs holes all over looking for grubs and worms. Poor things are just trying to make a living, but I wish they'd do it somewhere else.

Alisande, it looks to me like you have way better DOF than I get with my filters. Besides that, I get quite a bit of distortion, particularly around the edges. If yours are handheld at that mag, then I am suitably impressed! Thanks to everyone sharing their macros. I have been re-inspired to work with my camera again this year.

I shoot with a Canon digital Rebel (SLR) and am not sorry one bit! It has been a trooper for me since December 2004, and all my Canon film camera lenses work on it.

Absolutely mesmerizing photos; except for the snakes! They are my biggest fear! As a gardener, and I use that term loosely, I love watching any type of wildlife. We have tons of deer, pheasant,chipmunks, red-tailed hawks, great birds, and our favorite bluebirds that hatched 2 eggs and sad for us, they finally flew the coop. Bluebirds are great parents. They come back to the bluebird houses every year. Of course we certainly don't know if they are the same ones but we do enjoy them anyway. New England is a great place for gardeners and wildlife lovers. That's why we call our area, God's Country!

suebot in CT

I have a little townhouse with little front and back gardens, that I have edged with modular bricks. The coolest thing I remember was finding a big eight-inch lizard in one of my empty flower pots, I thought it had fallen in so kindly left it on its side so it could escape. I have blue-tailed skinks, wood frogs, and other assorted critters that hang about. Sometimes I have to be careful when I come home, because oddly in the summer toads like to come and sit on my walkway at night, bold as anything. I couldn't figure out why, but a scientist I know said they are probably enjoying the absorbed heat at night from the concrete. I just have to make sure I walk slow and step over the dark little blobs!

Enjoying all of these posts...thanks so much for sharing them with us!! I feed a number of squirrels and have a bird feeding table and suet hangers,etc. I have one very fat squirrel who fusses at me when the seed gets low or gone. One morning I was about to step through the garden gate when for some reason I stopped. Not 6 inches from my face on the gate post was this squirrel...not moving a muscle...I stared in to his face and as luck would have it I had my camera. Now..I'll have to go and find out how to post the picture. I admit I was scared...one never knows what these fellas will do. He just sat there and then suddenly jumped down and ran to the tree where the feeders are. It was a little close for comfort..but..he's here all of the time and a lot of mornings he's on the fence outside the back door...just waiting for me. He will come on the patio and get seed but I don't try it often...it's best if he continues on in his own world...too close to mine might make him a little too tame. He actually let me move my hand up and snap a photo...glad to have it of him..he's really a part of the garden and back yard...now I can remember him!
:)))))