Gardens Home & Garden

I think it had just eaten

We used to live on the bank of a rural canal, and often saw grass snakes swimming in there. They did look bigger than I remember them being when I was a kid!
We sometimes get foxes using the gardens as a short cut from one wooded area to another. They just hop over the fences.

“You don’t realise how much wildlife is living in urban areas”

“We humans have moved into previously undeveloped areas” is how I see things.

I agree, they were there first!

Sorry, I do some retired annuitant work for extra money and had a big project with a very short time frame. Worked 24 hours on it this weekend much to Tornado-dog's disappointment. He's not allowed to touch me when I am working (because he likes to tap the laptop with his feet and cause disasters). Project is done now and I have plenty of money to buy my plants at the sale this March!

We not only have encroached on their habitat, but we have altered and destroyed much of what we haven't encroached on with our dams, roads, chemicals, etc.

We have the egrets year round as well as the herons.



They both will find all you can eat buffets (aka backyard fish ponds) but are most often seen at our levees and rivers and lakes.

We also have lots of lizards and snakes (most harmless).

My resident squirrel is coming every day now to the one feeder. It is a smart camera feeder so I get alerted when she's there. At first, she kept climbing onto the feeder and sitting in the tray sticking her butt to the camera. So, whenever she does that I have been using the camera mic to tell her to move. If she doesn't, I open the back door so she'll run off.

After not quite a week, she has figured it out. As long as she sits on the railing and reaches over for the seed, she can eat all she wants. Today she didn't even try to climb on the tray.

The past week, I've caught a rat at the feeder each evening after dark. Using the mic scares him off immediately. Sunday, I talked to the neighbor and she said her dogs killed a rat. For the next two

I didn't realize my post cut off. I had no rat for two days, then a rat showed up at the feeder. It only came once, so I suspect it is gone gone gone.

There are now two squirrels. My polite resident squirrel who sits politely on the railing and calmly eats the seeds. Then there is the Obnoxious One. He gets right onto the feeder tray and refuses to budge. He gorges himself as fast as he can. He just doesn't get or care about being polite.

Meanwhile, the birds are happy happy happy. And the scrub jays are back in town. They hadn't been coming to get peanuts since last fall - although I did hear them on occasion. But as of yesterday, one has been coming to the peanut tray on the porch.

Getting a lot more goldfinches now too. And a phoebe came by the other day.

I hear my resident Anna hummingbird out there too.

I've been leaving the front door open during the day so the cats can sit and watch the birds on the porch. Panther gets so excited sometimes that she jumps at them - and ends up stuck to the security door by her claws.

Plant sale is just under 3 weeks away. Have 25 plants on my list so far to buy. Will fine tune the list over the next couple weeks.

One plant I'm hoping to get is an easter egg emu. The buds starts orange then change to yellow to pick then to purple as they bloom. They've never offered it before and there are only three available, so I'm hoping they won't get nabbed before I get to them. I want all three.

Tornado-dog is feeling a bit dejected because there are no fresh rodent scents to chase. But he loves his new couch - it's deep enough that he can lay next to me with his head in my lap.

Perhaps the site went down while you were typing!
I went trailing with Tally today in a National Trust Country Park and the birds were so used to human contact they were almost tame. When it was our turn to be the quarry, we hid amongst trees, waiting to be discovered. Three robins and a tree creeper came really close and peered at us - almost asking what we were doing? In 'our' quiet wood their behaviour is quite different. I might do a post about our day tomorrow.
I look forward to seeing your new plants as I have never heard of most of them.
We have a lot of squirrel activity. The trees in the waterpark are alive with them. They drive the Beagles into a frenzy.

It's cute when they look at you with their heads tilted.

Well the list put out of the inventory was NOT an accurate one. They have since replaced it. The easter egg emus are not on the new inventory list...

But some of the plants I wanted that disappeared from the list are back - so I have 36 plants to buy as of right now. Including two small pomegranate trees. This will likely change over the next couple weeks.

Looking forward to hearing about Tally's work!