Wow, Mike!
Can I borrow your snake? The most memorable animal in my garden was a ground squirrel!!
-B

I love the hummingbird moth. The first time I saw one in my garden I thought it was really a hummingbird. I ran in and told my wife "I've just seen the smallest hummingbird ever!" :)

Eric

Isn't the Hummingbird Moth the adult form of the Tomato Hornworm? I remember once reading a philosophical piece written by a woman who loved the moths and hated the worms not knowing that they were the same thing. Her attitude adjustment was very interesting. I am so glad there are living things in our gardens.

I am a fan of the tomato hornworm(weird I know)the moths are huge and so cool! I don't like tomatoes so I grow the plants just for the 'worms!
-B

Here is a link that might be useful: tomato hornworm all growed up!

I looked up some info. While they are in the same family, the hummingbird clearwing (apparently the most common hummingbird moth) is a different variety than the five-spotted variety. "Its larvae feed on honeysuckle, buckbrush, wild cherry and plum." We have lots of honeysuckle around.

"The five-spotted hawk moth is one of the largest. Its larva is the familiar tomato hornworm."

I love looking up info on things I don't know :)

Eric

Here is a link that might be useful: Hummingbird Moth Info

We lost a large tree in our front yard so we but a big wash bucket on the stump----
Since this area is now sunny I planted some flowers in the bucket---
I put some Zinnia seeds in there and we now have a humming bird visitng the bright orange flowers. the goldfinch and butterflies also love it.

My DH just said that next year he will dig up some of this sunny area and have lots of flowers that attract all the lovely critters--this area is visible from the area inside our home where we spend a lot of time when it is too hot to be on the screened porch where all the critters are..-

Florence

I've got critters everywhere in my yard - ground squirrels, squirrels chasing hawks out of the walnut tree (the squirrels joined forces), lots of butterflies, hummingbird mothes, hummingbirds, bluejays, purple martins, huge minnesota mosquitoes, regular mosquitoes, robins, finches, many other birds I dont' know the name of - one of them copies the others and becaue we live near the nursing home he now copies the sound of the ambulance, and at least one robin who likes to hang out right in the middle of the rose bush itself. He's surprised me more than once while I was deadheading. Who really expects to have a robin jump out of a rose bush, cussing you out, then hop away (he never did fly - just calmly hopped across the yard and alley, cussing me out the whole time).

What a wonderful thread! I see birds (robins, doves, grackles, bluebirds, wrens, finches, and many others I don't recognize) in my garden, which contains raised beds of veggies, flowers, fruits, and roses. After a rain if I'm quiet I will see the toads. The most memorable visitors one spring and summer were a pair of mallard ducks who nested and raised a brood under the grape vines. Since the garden has a solid fence the babies were safe from our dogs, who considered them interlopers from the getgo.

For the past two years I've seen no mice around, which is explained by the huge garter snake I saw last week sunning himself on the mulch.

BTW, a mockingbird comes back every year to nest in my mother's 80-year-old rose bush. We use no insecticides or pesticides, but when I spray the bush with milk or Cornell solution she scolds me indignantly. She and her babies are safe inside and don't get wet, the bush is so huge, but she still makes her opinion known! She doesn't seem to be very afraid of people either...

I found a snakeskin in the rose garden, not sure what snake it is, but it was over 2 feet long. I also saw a bunny the other morning. We always feed the hummers so they are starting to buzz about a lot now. I was out the other day with a hot pink shirt on and one came right up to me, must have thought I was a huge flower! LOL!

My baby mockingbirds have fledged so now I can spray my ZD again! They had a nest buried deep in it. Good think I saw it before I sprayed!

lol, Buford, about the hummers thinking your shirt was a flower. We used to take the kids down near San Antonio for vacations to a cabin near a beautiful creek.

The owners had "trained" their hummingbirds to come up to the house in the evenings for feeding. They taught us to wear a bright colored t shirt and stand real still, holding a feeder. I actually could feel the hummers wings beating over my hand. But if I blinked, the hummers flew away.

I came home for lunch today and glanced out the window as I was making my sandwich and there is Mrs. Deer and her Bambi, bold as brass in the middle of the day. The deer used to come only at night. I have all sorts of critters: raccoons, possums, frogs, toads, bunnies, squirrels, chipmunks and birds--despite the 16 cats. I even feed the birds and squirrels. The cats get two, sometimes three birds a week during fledging--only about 20% of cats are birders; Gideon and Tippi are my two. I put bird-bathing rocks in my critter pond; in the evening, after I've brought all the cats in, I go down and watch all the birds splash around. My other four hunters go for the chipmunks and voles, which does help keep them from my roots. Right after I put in my critter pond, it filled up with frogs and there were several experiments, but that has stopped. I guess frogs taste bad. I've had the same squirrel family since I moved in. They now wait for me to clear the deck of cats and then they come down for their mixed nuts! I love days off when I can just bustle in my own garden and watch the parade.

Funny, B, I do happen to have tomatoes in my rose garden (holding a new spot for a rose this fall). No hornworms yet. My biologist friend tells me that the king snake eats other snakes. And if you handle it (yeah, right), you shouldn't handle other snakes. They will become violently defensive.

Love all the other stories!

Mike

I am glad this post made me stop and think about who lives in my garden with me. Yesterday I saw the five-foot blacksnake who has been here for years eating a smaller snake. That's a first for me! I also have lizards, skinks, toads, turtles, tortoises, possoms, raccoons, deer, foxes, birds of infinite variety, hummers, moths, squirrels, voles, moles, bats, rabbits, and a brand new chipmonk family - I haven't seen any chipmonks before in the seventeen years I've lived here. Unfortunatley there are also ferel cats in the woods and many destructive insects, but the good far outweighs the bad. Denise

Great stories - I enjoy tending my garden and watching what bugs and animals come my way, but I know so little, really, about all the interactions that are going on among the plants, the insects, the soil, the fungus, bacteria, the animals. So little is actually under any of my control, as hard as I work or as hard as I try to observe.

It's a wonderful web of life out there, and I am just glad to have a garden to watch grow.

I saw my bunny today he likes my yard. I wonder why....I hope the snake doesn't get him.

Great thread - a count this AM: family of cardinals, couple dozen white winged doves, squirrels.

Due to the lack of rain, we're way down in the hummer and butterfly departments. And no more honey bee's in my sages - just lots of bumble variety. Tons of gecko's - I spotted one this morning that was like an inch long, he must be a true infant.

And of course....after I sprinkle the lawn, Willie the armadillo divots up the yard. I have gone out in the morning with my entire yard looking like a putting green. How can you get mad - esp. when you spot him with my kitty following him around? You have to laugh.

Last year, the year of the rain, I spotted like a 5 ft. rat snake out there. It was HUGE. After I did CPR on myself...I grabbed my cat and we watched him slither away.
:-)

This is a great thread, and at a time I have been thinking how nice it is to have all this nature thriving just outside my door.

I have:
LIZARDS - many varieties in the garden.
TOADS - (I've never seen a "frog" here, just lots of toads).
SQUIRRELS - Almost every day I see one sitting in the bird feeder eating sunflower seeds.
BIRDS - Mostly cardinals, doves, & Carolina wrens. A family of Carolina wrens live in a birdhouse behind my Austin rose, 'Heritage'. I can see both the mom & the dad feeding their babies from the window. For some reason our cat, normally a fierce hunter, just sits and watches them. She could have easily eaten all of them long ago, but she chooses to coexist with that particular bird family in our backyard.
ARMADILLOS - I'm not so happy about these. They live in the woods one block away and visit the garden during the night. Each morning, I have to do damage control from their drunken parties they throw each night. Plants half-dug up, rose roots exposed to the air, big holes everywhere, their beer bottles strewn about. They will continue to visit me until this fall when there will be sufficient rain to enhance the earthworm hunting in their woods. Until then, they will go where there is regular irrigation.
BUTTERFLIES - I think the penta plants, summer phlox, & alyssum bring them in.

Happy weekend,
Randy

When we came home from our walk this morning there was a large coyote in the middle of the street. Unfortunately, it did not have a rabbit in its jaws. It drifted into the neighbor's yard and let us pass. Hopefully it comes back for a rabbit. It is welcome to all of them!