What Garden/Backyard Visitors Have You Had This Year?

Yes - The lush side! a garden over a ditch.....;-)....
Ya gotta figure though, for as long as tortoises live even with small brains they've got to have memory. Or at least 'sense of purpose'. Or do they just wander around for 50 years hoping they don't go to sleep on the road?
I feel horrible when I see one that didn't make it. I mean "Swerve people!" It ain't that hard! I don't think they even reproduce until their teens or twenty's even! It's like that "The Prom Queen Wore Asphalt" public service movie they showed you in school, just sad.

What if they fall in the ditch!

Is anyone having trouble with scorpions in the house? I realize this thread is about critters outside but....
I stepped on a large scorpion (yes I got stung) in my dinning room. I hate it because I never know what it is I just know it hurts really bad. My kids were in the other room, I then heard my oldest son say "I think mom got stung by a scorpion" not that he moved.
My younger son did come in and bring me a shoe so I could smash it. : (

These r the same children that didn't move a muscle when HUGE carpenter ants came pouring on my head from a window shade mechanism.

I put bleach on my foot and it is fine. My kids truly believe that I can take care of anything, I'm glad they don't know the truth.

I found a dead grasshopper on my windowsill the other day, I am assuming it was in the yard because of my enticing little urban garden and somehow found its way to my windowsill seeking freedom. I told my DB about it and he said "oh thats been there forever" I should probably open the window shades more... oops! for a while i was seeing baby dragonflies, and I see tons of weird spiders. Also Selena chases off lots of rats I don't see, my roommate saw one and said it was HUGE! They leave pretty big chew marks on my maters.

We had a lovely water moccasin :o) along with assorted frogs, armadillos and a deer that tried to eat most of the bark off our new 'fruit cocktail' tree O.o It has been an interesting first year in Florida for us Northeasterners...LOL!

I found hornworm poop! so I guess I have those now!

Prettymess,
Have you found Harry yet?

I have been inundated with caterpillars - including hornworms - since September! Been finding them on everything!

And another:
These big ones were about the size of my pinky finger!

For the person looking for a receipe try this link.
http://www.cooks.com/
Living in a national forest,I always have a wide varity of wildlife come thru my garden.Yesterday a doe,last summer a bear.
Vickie

Since it started getting cold, we have had several moose visit.

I didn't find any of the hornworms, but I was about to pull up the plant anyway. I plucked off all the unripe tomatoes and let them ripen on the windowsill and then I threw the rest of the plant into a pile to compost! I never saw one of the hornworms, and they didn't seem to make it over to my other tomato plant but maybe next spring I will see some.

Well, this is outside my front door and not the backyard/ garden but I just had to post. This hawk was making noise outside our door this evening while I was talking with my wife and kids in the family room this evening. The front door leads directly into the family room, so my wife heard the noise and just got up to go inspect. She looked through the peephole, then opened the door and said, "OMG!" and tried to shut the door. Almost gave me a heart attack, I thought it was a home invasion. I think it is stalking a mouse or something, but of course I can't get too near. Magnificent beast.



This message was edited Nov 22, 2010 9:53 PM

That is beautiful. Are you sure its not part of the decorations?

Uh, John, the sign DOES say "Welcome..." ^^_^^

I realised I had gone totally dotty over animals when I rescued two honey bees last week. I fished them out of the pool as usual and put them in a warm place to recover, but it was too windy and they just got colder and weaker and couldn't move. So I emptied two small match-boxes and put a dab of honey in. When each bee smelled the honey, they got off my finger eagerly, into the match box and started eating immediately. After a night in the hot-water cupboard they were able to fly away. I am very allergic to bee stings, but figure that every bee is precious. We have had an epidemic of the varoa mite in the North Island of New Zealand and you hardly ever see a honey bee now. I heard a senior beekeeper on the radio say wild bees can't survive, because they have no immunity to varoa. The varoa mite has just reached the South Island.

This thread is old but I'll post anyway, since I just now noticed it.

Parrotrosie - your "visitor" isn't a water moccasin. I'm not sure what kind of non-poisonous snake it is, but moccasins don't have a pattern like that, or a long skinny tail.

I don't like snakes, but I don't harm any non-poisonous garter snakes or black snakes around our place. I reluctantly co-existed with a 5' black snake in my vegetable garden all summer. I didn't mind him much as long as I knew where he was, but a lot of the time I didn't. I was always afraid I'd reach under the bush beans or someplace I couldn't see and get ahold of him. That would probably startle me to death.

Black snakes probably catch moles once in a while, and they're supposed to prey on poisonous snakes like copperheads. I haven't seen a copperhead around here for several years, and maybe my leaving some large black snakes alone accounts for that. If so, it's worth it.

Found this tiny baby rabbit on the front walkway, not sure if I bumped him dragging the garden hose around to the front bed area.
No sign of the nest, but I'm not sure where to look. His eyes are not even open and he just flops around trying to walk, finally took this position and seems comfortable. I read online that the baby feeds once a day between 5 AM and noon and I have seen the mother in the same area on several occasions. I read that the mother does not hang around the nest since she might attract predators. I'll check on him in the morning, hope he is OK. Are these rabbits likely to become even more comfortable closer to the house? Worried that they might become a problem.

The little guy is very active, and I can see that he is trying to suck, I wonder if he got fed today. He can hardly walk or hop and is just wandering aimlessly with his eyes closed. Should I feed him with a dropper?

OK his stomach and color look fine and he passes the skin test so I'll leave him out there. This says they feed twice a day, and has good advice, so he will probably feed from the mother soon:
http://www.rabbit.org/faq/sections/orphan.html

This message was edited Aug 3, 2012 9:54 PM

A few days ago in my garden I came across a garter snake trying to eat a toad. The snake had both hind legs swallowed up to the toad's waist and the toad was struggling with its front legs trying to get away. I picked up a shovel and cut the snake's head off. Yeah, I know - harmless snake and I probably should have let nature take its course but I felt sorry for the toad and I don't much like snakes.

The snake's head immediately let go and the toad hopped off a little ways, but the toad's hind feet were black and almost gone - dissolved. I guess the poor thing was being digested feet-first and the swallowing process must take a long time. I know that's nature, but I think I now dislike snakes even more than I did before. Kinda disgusting, huh?

Ozark - I figure mother nature knows what she's doing, but I really felt sorry for this toad. No, I didn't kill the snake.

This photo was taken while on vacation, not in my garden.

Hmm... don't know why the photo didn't upload.

This message was edited Aug 4, 2012 3:08 PM

I think this one will work.

This is a Southern Water Snake.

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Saw the little guy out there again, or perhaps a brother or sister. He is walking/hopping now, with one eye open and constantly sniffing. I still cannot find the nest. He looked so pathetic last time, trying to move anyway he could. Lying on his side with his legs going, both eyes closed; I didn't think he would make it.

I think the nest is in a bed right up against the front porch. He probably comes out into the walkway here when he is hungry. He does not run away for some reason, still has only one eye open. I worry that I'm going to step on him by accident one time. He is about 1.5 times the size he was in the last picture.

This message was edited Aug 9, 2012 8:00 PM

Was very surprised to see a Bald Eagle on the railing of our back porch, just caught about 10 seconds as it was finishing breakfast. Went back there to see if I could find him to take a picture and saw the remains of a rodent it was eating, just a small ring of fur and some guts.

Uh,
Harry Hornworm was about as exciting as it got in my yard this season...

Harry was munching on my eggplants...He was relocated across the fence...