Other garden creatures 2008

I usually let Mom deal with the deformed butterflies. She has a stonger will than I do. I guess I find it hard to invest all the time into raising them to see it turn out badly. I usually have some guilt, too. Dad is good for dealing with the really big Cuban frogs. Once they get past a certain size I just have a hard time squishing them. Last time I had a big one I trapped in an old margarine tub and stuck it in the freezer.

In happier news, my family of red-shouldered hawks are hanging around again. I wish I could train them to guard my vegetable garden, but I think their presence alone helps. Last year they kept hanging out on the oak tree next to where I planted my veggies, but usually they seem to prefer pine trees. Sorry he's kind of blurry, but he gets weird if you look directly at him. I've been less then 20 feet from him several times and it's ok as long as you don't look directly at them. That's what freaks them out. I think they view me as some kind of animal that likes to root around in the dirt because I feel like I'm always weeding.

Lots of caracaras (Mexican Eagle) out at the ranch. Guess my highlight was watching several white tailed deer zip past me and watch me watch them in the brush :o)

~ Cat

Oh yeah, figured I'd show what the Crested Caracara (Polyborus plancus) aka Mexican Eagle aka Caracara Eagle aka Mexican Buzzard aka King Buzzard looks like.

These eat carrion and well after those feral dogs killed 9 boer goats a couple of weeks ago there was plenty of carrion out in the back pasture. I counted at least two dozen of these birds in the back field.

Here's one doing a one legged perch on a fence post.

~ Cat

This message was edited Mar 30, 2008 8:31 PM

Evil looking beak on that Buzzard Cat! sorry about the goats.

Becky, do you have fish in the pond that the raccoon is trashing? They do eat fish if they can catch them. If not then I guess it is using it to wash it's food in.

Cool birds! ..and sorry about the goats. :( My dad had a racoon that trashed his pond, and ate his fish, last year. He was not happy either.

This is the "creature" I've been watching lately. He's going to wonder where all of his grass went when he comes back. We mowed that rye grass and the larkspur that got out of bounds. I hope that he'll go for the Queen Anne's Lace since I saw him eat the bloom on the Larkspur. I love him/her tho!

Here's another critter that some of you won't like, a field mouse. He cracks me up because I think he thinks he's a dove! lol When they are out pecking around on the ground he'll run out (from somewhere) and get right in with them. He doesn't usually hang out alone, just when the doves come.

Out where you live you probably have hawks occasionally. I bet he figures "safety in numbers". Looks like he is well fed!

Great critter photos everyone! I am thoroughly enjoying this thread! I love seeing all the other creatures that visit everyone's gardens!

Paige - It is a cuban tree frog. I gave up ridding myself of them. There are just way toooooo many! So they are here to stay in my yard I guess. I love your little bunny. We get lots of them in herre too! They come out in the early mornings and late afternoons to munch on grass and other plants. They don't bother my garden beds at all. Nice bunnies! :-) I haven't seen any mice/rats in a long time. I think the hawk and the owls got them all! Too bad they can't keep the raccoons away!

I do NOT have fish in my container ponds. I think the raccoon is washing it's food. And it's getting into the pond and destroying all my waterlilies and other water plants. I am soooo mad! I am going to call Animal Control this week and see if I can't get a live trap so that I can catch this raccoon and relocate it! It is just making a mess of my backyard!

Cat - Love your eagle/buzzard photos and the deer! How lovely is that! I would love to see deer here, but no such luck. Progress has run off most of the larger wild critters. Have the owls been back to the deer blind this year yet?

Take this one, shot yesterday from the attic window!

OMG!! Parrots? Wild Parrots! How cool is that!!! Only in the Netherlands! LOL! Lucky YOU, Tuinkabouter!

Offspring of escaped pets gone wild! Thanks to global warming!

I don't blame you Becky. He's so cute, but I know they are "bad" tho I'm not sure why. I assume it's that it's overtaking the native frogs. I have no idea how you could personally help that situation other than killing them and I don't know if I could do that either. Putting it in the freezer sounds fairly easy and much less disgusting than squishing it!! eeekkk!

Do you think the raccoon would leave the pond alone if you put out something for it to use to wash it's food? Just put a little sign up for him "Racoon's only".

Sheila, I had no idea you could think like a field mouse! Nice! ;) I think you are exactly right because he does know my hawks would scarf him up. Maybe he's not so dumb after all.

Cool parrots! Much prettier than the average brown-headed cowbird.

I almost literally ran into the large night spider again! It apparently caught something in it's web and was making short order of it! LOL!

of mice (& not men) - I've been trying to trap one that lives under my shed for about
a month now, using a spring trap with cheese & peanut butter. I've found the trap
both sprung & unsprung, with the food gone (even saw a tiny footprint in the pea-
nut butter once!). One of my co-workers (who lives in the city) claims it's a " 'hood
rat" since it's so smart; I think it's an escapee from The Nat'l. Institute of Mental
Health, where it was in one of those super-secret IQ experiments (I need to think
that, rather than that I'm just dumber than a mouse).

I even have a cat & a beagle that crawl under the shed (so I can't use any poisons)
When I yell at the cat about the mouse, he just looks at me like, "I don't see you
catching it, either!". Any suggestions?

Stop feeding the cat and/or dog? They'll hunt when they get hungry!

Not that I would ever be able to do that........

Attract birds to your yard with a feeder or two. And then perhaps some hawks and owls will come check out all the activity from the other birds and find your mouse! LOL! That's how my mouse/rat population was eliminated. And I get to see such beautiful birds of prey! :-)

I know this may seem like a weird question ... but is there a reason you want to get rid of the mouse? I think mice/rats can be found just about everywhere like insects, birds, etc. Can ya live in peace with this rodent or is it causing a problem for you?

Hi, Becky - I'm smack in the middle of the 'burbs, about 1/2 acre. I have several
bird feeders. There are sharp-shin hawks & kestrels year-round, & an occ redtail.
The sharpies & redtails work hard (to no avail) at keeping the pigeons in check
(BIG problem). Nobody seems to have noticed Mickey, tho. And I don't have the
right habitat for owls - a few tall shrubs, 3 small trees (a lot of power lines - old
neighborhood). A few neighbors' yards have old tall trees - but most neighbors
seem more interested in monster trucks & garages!

Mickey has chewed his way into my shed. A couple years ago, a Minnie got in
& had a litter in my lawnmower mulch bag; I had to do the dirty deed & dispose
of them. Yuck! You sound like you have a larger property - how big?

Hi Carol!

I have a standard residentual lot. 80' X 120'. My backyard is not that deep because the house sets back a ways on the lot from the front street. But I do have that 80' width (actually more like 70' because we decided to bring it in a bit) across the yard. I have an Oak tree right behind the house in the backyard and one to the west side of the house. And then I have 4 ornamental trees in the front part of the yard that don't get but maybe 20' tall max. I have garden beds bordering the entire backyard around the house and the inside of the fence. I do have vacant lots to the west and north of me (behind my house) and there are lots and lots of large Brazilian Pepper trees growing all over both of them. The vacant lots are terribly overgrown, so that is probably where all the wild creatures are coming from. It looks like I live in the middle of the woods, but actually I am right in the middle of a neighborhood. LOL!

Ever since I put my birdfeeders up, I have been getting a lot of interesting creatures. Some which have become pests like the raccoon. I also had a family of fruit rats last year coming in broad daylight to eat among the birds and squirrels under the birdfeeder. But I think the owls and hawks got them all because I haven't seen any in about 4-5 months. They were rat size, but cute. My dh and I kinda got attached to them. LOL! One rat only had one eye. It must have lost an eye somehow. It couldn't hear very well either because I walked right up to it one day and it didn't even hear or see me. Luckily, I haven't seen any damage around my house and gardens from any of those critters. Now ask me about carpenter ants (and termites) and that's a different story!

I tolerate most of the critters unless they make a nuisance of themselves in some way. I feed all of them! (Except the raccoon.)

I understand your dilemma with the chewing mouse. They are very smart and can outwit a mouse trap. You might need to call an exterminator to rid yourself of this mouse permanently. Or call animal control and see what they suggest. Sorry to hear that your cat and dog don't seem to bother it! Usually if there is a mouse predator around (cats, dogs, etc.) the mice will move somewhere else. LOL! Ya need to have a serious talk with your cat!!!

I guess I think of the field mice as just a part of feeding the birds. I did stop for a season and it helped but I still had them. They are sort of like the Cuban tree frog, just no way I can get rid of them. We did have to trap the house mice that were in the garage tho.

Ohhhh....I hate carpenter ants!! I still have no idea how to get rid of them, or even where they are coming from. I dread my passionvine coming up with no solution to the ants, since they rob me of my GF eggs.

We are batty in PA. LOL

OH! HOW COOL IS THAT!!!

That is one of my future projects to erect a bat house. :-) :-) :-) They eat a LOT of insects every night! :-) :-)

Sandhill crane came wandering down the street yesterday. Dad was mad he had to dodge it when he came home. They like to stand in the middle of the road and it is very hard to get them to move. They don't seem to see vehicles as a threat.

Melanie

Melanie - I hear ya about the Sandhill Cranes! There are getting to be too many of them in Sebastian. I am sure they think they own the roads here! LOL! I saw a pair flying overhead right at sundown as I was working out in the backyard. They are such big birds that they cast a large shadow as they fly over. They seem out of place here with all the typical smaller birds. They remind me of an ostrich. LOL!

I only tolerate them because they hang out with the endangered wood storks and I guess there's safety in numbers. Well, it was eating bugs out of my yard, too.

I see some of the larger birds like the herons and the Roseate Spoonbills, but not as much since I don't go fishing as often. I did have one large heron scare the life out of me when I was hiking last year. All I heard was rustling and as I prepared for attack the bird flew out of the bushes and away from me. I was just glad it was a bird and not something else!

Melanie

That little brown bat was sleeping a couple nights under our carport & I took the opportunity to catch him in photography forever.

Ever tried to shoot a jay? Took me a long time, but here it is:

When you say "Jay", do you mean like in Blue Jay? Beautiful bird there, Tuinkabouter!!!

Guess so! We call it Flemish Jay but I have no clue why!

Hi everyone, I love all your critters, creatures and flying beauties. Here is a moth we chased out of my moonvine. He made a beeline to the perfect spot on the tree where he thought he could hide.

I LOVE the photos on some of these threads of the hummingbird moths. I had a few sphinx moths in my moons last year as well and the photos here are better than when I looked them up online! nice work.

he stayed very still as we ran for the camera just so sure of himself and his camouflage.

Great photos everyone! Am impressed by the bat. Wish I could attract those to my yard to get rid of the mosquitoes.

Rabbits are so cute. Love 'em when they are babies...what is a baby rabbit called anyway? A kit? I can't remember.

Too funny abou that crane Mellie. We had a heron or something like that show up at the pond one year. Dad had stocked it with left over crawdads and bait fish from a fishing trip and that bird ate every single one! Guess it thought it had hit the jackpot for finding a smorgasboard of edibles in the middle of this parched land.

Great camouflage on that moth too!!!

Carpenter ants! UGH!!! They love crawling all over my wooden privacy fence and the cedar beams of my back porch. I find them prowling along the passion flower vines all the time too. They seem to know I'm going to kill them because they start crawling very fast whenever I come walking around. I squish everyone I find!

Tuink...you ought to try getting a photo of a green jay. Those birds never sit still for a second. Noisy and forever climbing between branches of the trees. I have yet to get a good photo. Will have to start setting out berries, nuts and cut up fruit to attract them to an open area where I can photograph them. We get woodpeckers coming to butterfly bait too.

Becky...you need to start adding those spider predator and prey photos on that old thread about butterflies predators. :o) I get chills when I see a big spider like that! Brrrrrrrrrrr!!!

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/773652/

~ Cat

HA! This fella is patiently awaiting some skippers to come nectar from my purple trailing lantana. Most lantana has a odd smell. This one has a nice flower fragrance. Kinda sweet smelling. Very nice. The Skippers love this plant, but I think they are way too fast for this lizard.

Love the pattern on it's back, too! Handsome fella!

Squirrels having breakfast this morning. :-)

Found this cuban frog perched on one of my Shepherd's hook poles. I think he was looking for night bugs!

Or maybe he was admiring the Brug blooms of Ecuador Pink! :-)

LOL, Becky your little friend the frog has good taste....eh-buds. lol Cute little one, and gorgeous E. Pink.

Here I have this hard- worker that must have worked on the double the day before. Today he's sleeping in late. I found him snoozing still in the morning hours. He's who works hard, plays hard, here he's sleeping hard.

I'm so excited! I saw my first green treefrog since I've been gardening at my house (about four years). I know it sounds mean when I talk about killing all the Cuban frogs, but the reason I do it is to preserve our native frogs like this guy (Cuban frogs eat the native frogs). It seems like my plan is paying off!

Melanie

We also have native anoles and Cuban anoles. Luckily, they like different habitats so they tend not to bother each other. I have tons of the Cuban ones, but ever since I planted my bromeliad garden I've seen more and more of the native green ones. This one was perched atop the trellis on my raised vegetable bed.

Got a few pics of the Anoles also.

2nd pic.