Animal Antics in the Garden

 For my blog post today, I thought I'd share with you the antics my husband and I witnessed as we sat on the patio with our morning coffee.

We've got at least four hummers, gearing up for their migration.  They expend so much energy chasing each other round the columns on the patio and around the garden, it seems like they will be worn out before they even get started across the Gulf.

Usually, I can only get photos of them either on the feeders, or perching in a tree.  I was lucky this morning to be able to capture these photos of a female in flight as she approached the feeder.

The hummers aren't the only birds in evidence today. As I was sitting on the patio, aiming my camera at the hummingbird feeder for the photos above, I kept seeing flashes of color and movement along the back wall of the garden.

This male Northern Cardinal perched and posed momentarily for a photo op, but not for long. As you can see in the photo above (I'm amazed I caught it on film), another male is swooping in to chase the intruder from "his" territory.

At the same time, on top of the wall, what I thought were two adult females, but turned out to be an adult and a juvenile when I looked at the photo on my computer, are happily pecking at bird seed.

The juvenile enjoyed hopping up and down the milkweed stalks.  Do they eat aphids?  I'm not sure, but at least there were no caterpillars in the way.

When we first moved in here and were surrounded by our own personal forest, we seemingly had our own resident squirrels.  Since all the trees died and/or were removed, and since the lots either side have been cleared and built on, we very rarely see squirrels.

I was missing them, but happened to glance out and see one on the fence last week.  This morning, it was back, helping itself to the birdseed and nuts on the fence. 

There such sweet little things, and so entertaining, I welcome them in the garden.  They've lost so much habitat around here, I'll do anything I can to help them survive. If it means the birds have to share their seed and nuts with the squirrels, so be it :-)


Words and photographs by Jayne Wilson, Green and Serene, Jayne's Country Garden.

Squirrels in the Rain

I got woken up by a pretty spectacular thunderstorm Saturday morning.  Not that I'm complaining, we certainly will take all the rain we can get! 

I was surprised to notice, while I was having breakfast, that there was a squirrel out on the feeder, getting soaked, but enjoying the goodies in the feeder, which I just filled up the day before.


He was still out there an hour or so later, when the rain had let up a bit and the sky was a bit brighter, so I was able to get some photos. If you click on the photo to see the full size, I think you can see the rain drops.

Suddenly I realized there wasn't just one squirrel out there.  Another one was on the ground under the feeder, picking up seeds and nuts that had dropped.  As I appeared at the door with my camera, this second one scooted across the lawn and up the pine tree.

 

It wasn't until I downloaded the photos that I realized the squirrel appeared to be saying grace!

I'm keeping the feeder full, I hope they stay around.
 


Words and photographs by Jayne Wilson, Green and Serene, Jayne's Country Garden.

Squirrel Appreciation Day

Did you know that Saturday, January 21st is Squirrel Appreciation Day?


I know a lot of people consider squirrels to be annoying pests, but I find them entertaining.  

When we first moved into this house, I was thrilled to discover resident families of squirrels in the trees on either side of us who regularly visited our garden.  

Then began the battle of wits to keep them from tearing apart the bird feeders and stealing all the food for themselves.

Actually it was a short battle because I didn't use actual feeders for very long.  I discovered in our first summer here that, no matter where I put the feeders, they got soaked every time the sprinklers ran.

It got to be a chore to bring them all down the night before the sprinklers ran, and I was always forgetting, so in the end I did away with feeders, for the most part.

I took to sprinkling seed along the top support rail of the fence and the top of the back wall and, as you can see here, the birds and the squirrels were happy to share.

I also gave the squirrels a feeder of their own and I love watching them lift the lid and reach inside for their goodies.  It was amusing watching the birds around it too. One day I watched as a woodpecker perched by it and picked out corn, piece by piece, and toss it to the ground!

It's rather sad to say that we rarely see squirrels here anymore.  We used to have trees on either side, and a row of trees along the road behind us, so the squirrels had plenty of habitat.  That's all gone now, except for the trees in our garden.

But I still keep the squirrel feeder filled and occasionally one will come to visit.  I hope they know they are welcome here.

7 Ways to Celebrate Squirrel Appreciation Day from the National Wildlife Federation.



Words and photographs by Jayne Wilson, Green and Serene, Jayne's Country Garden.

Wordless Wednesday - Lunchtime at Squirrel's Rest

Words and photographs by Jayne Wilson, Green and Serene, Jayne's Country Garden.

I Know the Feeling....

 After a long, busy week at work followed by a hot, steamy lawn mowing session, I can sympathize with this garden visitor...

Words and photographs by Jayne Wilson, Green and Serene, Jayne's Country Garden.

Flora and Fauna

Slowly, but surely, the garden is blooming out. The wait has been hard for me, but then I'm not the most patient person in the world.  So while everyone has been sharing photos of all the myriad plants they had in bloom and all I had blooming was my pansies, I'll admit, I was getting despondent.

Then my gazanias started blooming, as I blogged about recently, and I began to have hope that I would actually have some flowers in the garden this year.

So in today's post, I'd like to show you some of what is coming into bloom. And in addition, because I get as much enjoyment from the fauna that visits our garden as I do from the flora, I'll show you some of our recent visitors.

In the front flowerbed, the daylilies that I planted last year have started putting out flower buds.  This is the only one that is blooming at the moment, but several of the others are ready to go too. 

I'm not sure what variety this is.  I got a "Daylily Grab Bag" from Spring Hill Nurseries and at one point I wrote down where I had planted which variety, but of course that sheet of paper got lost.

The front flowerbed is starting to take shape now. I'm looking forward to seeing it develop and bloom this summer.

The hollyhock in the back garden is finally rewarding me with blooms. I had mentioned before that the hollyhock I had in the front garden got completely covered with rust and I had to pull it out.  Well I noticed when taking photos of this one that it is beginning to get some tiny spots on it too. But since hollyhocks are biennials, I'm sure it will be dying off after it has bloomed anyway, so as long as I can enjoy the blooms for a while, I won't worry about some spots.

Here's a close up of one of the blooms in the sunshine. You can see the little spots of rust in this photo.

These Salvia "Hot Trumpets" are passalongs from a fellow garden blogger on HoustonGrows and seem to be settling in to the bed between the milkweed and the Rose of Sharon.

At the other end of that bed are some volunteer sunflowers, courtesy of the birds, and last weekend, I happened to notice this guy...

I believe it's a saltmarsh caterpillar - Estigmene acrea (Drury) - also known as a "Woolly Bear."  Of course, all the websites I found it on referred to it as a pest, but since he was snacking on a volunteer sunflower seedling and not anything I desperately wanted to save, I decided to let him be. I did wonder how long he would stay, since the seedling was rather small and he seemed pretty voracious.  As it happened, he was gone by next morning.  I looked on the other seedlings and didn't see him, so perhaps one of my feathered visitors had a nutritious, but hairy, breakfast.

I hope this ladybug decides to stick around, I'm sure I'll have a plentiful supply of aphids for her as the summer progresses!

This blue jay seems to be saying "Good Morning" to the fairy who lives at the base of the pine tree.

While this Red Cardinal took his turn at the bird feeder.

Since we moved in in the summer of 2008, we've had a steady succession of squirrels come to visit.  I never gave much thought to what type of squirrel they were until someone commented that, judging from a photo I had posted, they were Fox Squirrels.

Fox squirrels (Sciurus niger) larger than grey squirrels and have a rusty-colored underbelly and they are Texas' most common squirrel. In fact, it wasn't until earlier this spring that we saw any other type of squirrel in the garden.

The first squirrels to show up this year in the garden, following our freezing winter, were a group of three grey squirrels. They're quite a bit smaller than the fox squirrels and they have white underparts. Their tails don't seem to be as thick either.

Before I sign off, yesterday evening I got around to pulling out the spent pansies from the beds under the small trees in the front garden.  I left the bluebonnets which are still blooming (although they're almost finished) and which have some hefty seedpods on them. I filled in around them with some blanket flower, Gaillardia "Fanfare" and some Verbena "Hot Lips."

Now the trick will be making sure everything has enough water. It's a cruel fact that while parts of the country are having floods, we appear to be having a mini drought.

The rain barrel we installed a few weeks ago is turning out to be a great investment.  Soon after we installed it we had a couple of gentle rains which were enough to fill it to the brim! So I've been able to do a lot of my watering with FREE rainwater!

This weekend, I'll be setting up the new compost bin, which is our latest investment :-)

Words and photographs by Jayne Wilson, Green and Serene, Jayne's Country Garden.

Share and Share Alike

Quite often, when I look outside, I'll see a squirrel on the wall or fence, sitting on his haunches, chowing down on the seeds I put out for the birds.  My husband jokes that they are just ignoring the "No Squirrels Allowed" sign.

I really don't mind, I find them quite entertaining.  I could sit and watch them for hours -- well, I do, sometimes.

I was even more amused yesterday, when I happened to see something I hadn't seen before --  a Mourning Dove standing on the squirrel feeder, helping himself.

A little while later, there was a Blue Jay out there, also pecking over the remains of the morning's squirrel breakfast.

But the squirrels had the last laugh. I couldn't believe my eyes when I was heading outdoors with my coffee and saw this young lady IN the birdfeeder!

Life is never dull around here.  I hope that doesn't change when our subdivision, as yet less than one quarter built out, gets filled in.

Words and photographs by Jayne Wilson, Green and Serene, Jayne's Country Garden.