Wildlife in the Garden

Life in the garden is not all blooms and scents. A garden is home to many things such as this cute little Anole lizard. These little things are all over our garden and yard. They especially enjoy our retaining brick wall for the warmth. The fun thing is when I find the baby Anoles. They are the cutest little things. These lizards turn from green to brown depending on the color of the surface being a Gecko of sort. I captured this Anole in a nearby Botanical garden.

To the left, you will see another type of lizard. See how his color blends in with the pine straw? I did not really care for lizards until we moved into this house. I came to realize how many bugs they ate and truly believe they have a place in the garden right along side of my flowers and plants.

We also have skinks such as this one. Compare his size to the brick of the house! He is a big fellow. I know this one is a male due to his bright orange head during mating season.

I don't have a fear of lizards but this one did intimidate me a bit so I kept clear of him. I can only imagine the dance I would do if he got up my pants leg! Arggg...

We have a dry bed that acts as a creek during rainfalls so we get an occasional salamander. This one was a bit off track as it was in the grass far away from the creek. I spotted it as I was walking back and forth to the garden and I made sure to keep him in my sight so I would not accidentally step on it.

Of course frogs and toads are in the garden taking advantage of the many bugs but have you ever seen one this size before? I am not sure what type this was but it was so large that it intimidated me and I would not pick it up! I don't have a problem with frogs but look at this one compared to the Saints hand! Now that's a frog. I snapped this picture then we rustle him into the woods for protection. I then tried to look the frog up in my reptile book but could not find anything similar at all. We may have had a new species of frog and let him go!

My favorite frogs are the little green tree frogs. Anonymous, your little Sidekick would love these little cuties! Some live on the front porch in the table top water fountain. Most of the season, I cannot turn the fountain on as they take shelter in the channel of the fountain! I fear I may drown them if I turn the thing on. Wildlife rules my every decision around here!

These frogs can make people do the Frog Dance. Imagine sitting in the swing taking in the peace and quiet of nature. Then out of the hanging plant jumps this frog onto you! My dad has both hips replaced but he did one heck of a dance for a frog one afternoon. If only I had a video camera in my hand for that one! Ha...

After a good rainfall on a summer afternoon, the box turtles start to come out. I spotted one and ran to get my reptile book to research them a bit. I found out they eat worms. So I dug up a worm and dangled it in front of a turtle and he ate the thing! I was hand feeding a turtle in the wild! That was so exciting for me.

I had never seen such a small turtle in my life (in the wild) until the day I spotted this little guy! I kept finding this tiny creature in the yard over a period of a week. I was so afraid of killing it with the mower or by stepping on it, that I finally took it into the woods in the front so it would go on with its life of being a turtle in a safe environment.

This little turtle was about the size of a quarter! Now that is a small turtle and to think, I kept spotting it in the yard over a week period of time!

You knew it was coming didn't you? All gardens get snakes at some point. This little green snake was in our Japanese Maple tree.

I killed snakes the first year we moved into the house. One day I felt such guilt after killing one of Gods Creatures that I decided to no longer kill them. Instead I got on the computer and tried to educate myself on them. Now only the triangle headed ones meet my wrath!

We found this little earth snake dead and snapped a picture to show you how small they are. They are about the size of a earthworm and look very similar to them. These little guys are burrowing snakes and we often find them under the pine straw...

Here is a Rat or Chicken Snake, named so due to their appetite for Rats and Chicken Eggs. These snakes are harmless to humans and we hope they eat their fill of Moles and Voles in the yard! When we spot one, we just direct them out of the yard and into the woods.

I am not a fan of spiders but I must say, this is the most beautiful spider I have ever seen in my life! I see them in our yard but have never gotten a good pictures of them. I was lucky enough to capture this shot at a Botanical garden.


What would a garden be without a Bushy Tailed Gray Squirrel? My answer, paradise! I have a love hate relationship with the squirrels. I enjoy watching them scurry about playing with each other. I enjoy watching them steal the fake snow off my front porch winter display each winter, but why do they have to wreak havoc in my flower pots and perfectly spread pine straw? I guess that is what a squirrel does and each day is a new challenge where the squirrels are concerned!

Oh look at those cute Bambi! I enjoy seeing the baby deer (fawns) come into the yard for the first time. They don't seem to do as much damage as the squirrels but I do have to keep my eye on them. The deer recently ate all the leaves off a small dogwood we have been babying! Time for us to move the tree to a new location.

We had this Buck, Doe and twin fawns one summer. They would come into the yard to eat corn as we sat at the patio. They were not shy of us at all. We have not had an entire family since that summer. With all the building going on around us, they are a bit shy now...

We find that providing them corn keeps them occupied mainly on one side of the house and we knew it would be a mistake to plant the dogwood tree near the corn so we blame our self for that one!

Ah, I started this posting a while back and today as I update it, I found 7 blooms missing on the new Sedum I planted about 2 weeks ago! I had to treat the area with some store bought granular stuff. Plus, I hung up bars of Dial soap around the veggie garden.

Can you see all 6 deer in this picture? Hint, look for the heads...
They do enjoy the corn we provide them.

Here is Rocky Raccoon! This raccoon was so busy stealing the compressed corn cob that he could have cared less that we walked right up to him and snapped this picture! He would look at us as if to say, "Do you want me to say cheese"

Gray Foxes once trotted through our yard every morning and evening.

Since the coyote showed up, they disappeared. I saw 3 at one time and that was exciting! One time the Fox were eating food at the same time as the Deer! The picture did not come out well as that was in the days of my 35 mm Camera. We spotted a Red Fox one time but he did not hang around long enough for me to get the camera.

We spot an occasional opossum walking through the garden. We usually see them under the bird feeders hunting for fallen seed the squirrels have missed.

This opossum was caught on my parents back porch stealing cat food! What a brave little creature to pose for the camera!

Another love hate relationship I have would be the rabbits. Here you see Peter and Paula playing in our yard. I think they are cute as can be until I catch them munching down on the Liriope and Hosta amongst other plants of mine! Arggg, go back to Mr McGregor's Patch!

Our gardens are full of beauty, scents and wild visitors such as the ones I have talked about today. Each day seems to be a new experience with a new wild visitor into my gardens.

The most vivid memory of a wild visitor would have to be the day I found a Long Horn Cow in the garden! Yep, we had a full fledged Texas Style Round-up in the yard complete with rustling dogs and cowboys! The cow had gotten loose from a nearby pasture. I reckon all the wildlife told him to come to my yard for the warm Welcome!

Each day I wake up and wonder, who the next visitor will be in my gardens...

I hope you all enjoy Wildlife in the Garden as much as we do at our home...

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