2018 Backyard Birds, etc. Wildlife Watching

[applestar]

One of the best about regularly looking out of the window to Gardenwatch is that you get in the habit of rapidly scanning the landscape and focusing on “unusual” activity or movement. Often I see things that I would have missed a few minutes earlier or later and feel very lucky.

Today I looked out a window primarily to see how much snow fell (reported amount is 8 inches or more), and saw a squirrel digging in a specific spot in the snow. Everywhere else was pristine. As it dug, first its head in the snow, then half its body, I thought “it is going to show me how deep the snow is there”.... and eventually it hopped inside the hole and all I could see were the ears and tip curl of the tail. It kept digging (completely invisible), twice -standing and?- poking head out of the ground to look around, then after a particularly long pause...came out with a hickory nut !!

It took a leaping hop out of the hole then scrambled up the swing set/play system and up an overhanging willow oak branch.

I was astounded. Did it just REALLY precisely know where to dig under nearly a foot 7 inches of snow to retrieve a buried treasure?

— took some pics later — you can see this is the ONLY hole the squirrel dug

[thanrose]

Animal behaviorists that know squirrels say they do not remember where their caches are. But there are so many hidey-holes from all of their friends and relatives that when they smell one in the vicinity, they go for it.

Having rehabbed squirrels with one living with me off and on for nearly two years, I'd say that's probably right. They get very annoyed when they think they've found a good storage space and yet there's nothing there save the fading scent. But they'll find something else to obsess about in a few seconds.

[applestar]

I was so relieved to see birds at the bird feeders and generally active around the garden this morning!
...yesterday, I refilled the feeders but no matter how many times I looked out the window, the garden was eerily still — no birds to be seen anywhere. It was almost as if they had all gone away, and I was imagining all kinds of dire events.

I didn’t make the connection until this morning when everything looked back to normal, but when I was outside yesterday clearing up the winter debris in the garden and assessing what needs to be done, I felt a movement overhead and looked up to see a HUGE — 4-5 foot — glider-like model airplane at middle height above. It was flying in lazy circles so probably somehow remotely controlled although I couldn’t see how it was steering to allow that. I waved to it in case it had a camera on-board.

I saw a couple of grackles start off towards it and abort. I chuckled that these brave birds who would chase off crows and hawks were intimidated by this strange giant “bird”.

YEAH that must have been what scared all the birds into hiding for the remainder of the day yesterday.

[applestar]

This is a really lousy shot, taken by looking almost directly below the upstairs window through the screen, so even though the lenses are focused beyond it, there is a lot of interference — but LOOK!



— a blue robin’s egg in a nest on top of a weeping Colorado blue spruce This spot is alternately claimed by robins and mourning doves each spring.

[digitS']

A garden neighbor has only a garage on his land, he lives elsewhere. There are two Douglas fir trees in the lawn behind the garage and DW and I tend to hang out there in the shade. We aren't the only ones. There is a robin's nest in one of those trees every year.

It rained last night and there were canine tracks going into the garden. Ours and another neighbor's were recently tilled so it was fairly easy to see the tracks. I figured a coyote because a stray dog shows up about every 3 or 4 years, at most.

As we were working, a hawk descended and grabbed something fairly large from the middle of the garden. I thought that I would have seen some rabbit or something if it had been out in the open. Then, I became curious! Did the coyote kill something out there last night and the hawk just carried off the remains?

I decided to track the coyote. The combined area of the two gardens is 95' by 200'. He left the garden at one point but returned a few feet further. Traveled all over it! I felt quite accomplished to be able to follow him. Much of our ground had already been trampled by DW and me . Out in the middle of things, about where that hawk had been, there were scraps of plastic. Wait a minute! The tractor guy had tilled in a black plastic bag - I'd noted that several days ago. Where was the larger piece of that bag?

Then, I realized what the hawk (probably a Sharp-shinned) had carried off. I hope its babies don't have problems with a plastic bag in the nest!

Steve
fearless tracker of predators thru the garden environment

[applestar]

Mama bird this morning —



...and the nest viewed from above just a little while ago —

[applestar]

There are 4 blue eggs in the robins nest today ...but by the time I got the telephoto lense attached to my iPhone to take a picture, the Mama Robin had come back and was sitting on the nest.

...it’s interesting to note that the nest is super visible with the turquoise-blue eggs in them, but once she is covering them, very hard to spot without binoculars — then I can see the white around her eyes and the yellow along her beaks, which gives her a comical expression.... I think she senses my gaze because her eyes are constantly moving and blinking, but she keeps the rest of her body very still..

[applestar]

I’ve been seeing a hummingbird every day for the last week or so. Not only at the native trumpet honeysuckle gate arbor, but I also hear it chittering at other locations where, as far as I know, there are no flowers.

Today, I was taking care of my plant starts that are hardening off on the picnic table under the mulberry tree, listening to the chickadees noisily flying down to the feeder just outside of the tree’s canopy, when I heard the loud thrumming wingbeats and typical mouse squeak like chittering sounds of the hummingbird over my head.

I don’t really know what the hummingbird was doing with me under the mulberry tree unless my dark purple shirt looked tasty... hmmm... on second thought, I think there ARE some wild bleeding hearts in that shade garden area, and possibly some daffodils. Maybe they were what was attracting the hummingbird? OR possibly the Japanese honeysuckle that are rampant in the woods behind the house are also starting to bloom, even though I haven’t smelled them.

[ButterflyLady29]

While cleaning up my garden I found a rabbit nest full of babies. They left a few days later.
Today I almost stepped on a very large garter snake in the same garden.
There is a bird house hanging near the garden that has a chickadee nest inside.

[applestar]

I saw a single firefly around 4am this morning. Normally hardly any fireflies are out by then, many earlier in the evening.
I wonder if there were more and I only saw the one, or if this is only the first of the season? It feels a little early.

...didn’t see any after sunset today, but we had heavy rain falling just a little earlier...

[applestar]

I’ve been watching for more fireflies but had not been seeing any. But I knew they were/would be out there eventually because I unearthed a firefly pupa while prepping a bed to be planted the other day.

Last night, there they were, all over the backyard


firefly pupa photo from BugGuide

[applestar]

SO MANY FIREFLIES!

...easily 100 just in the backyard area I can see from the window
[iPhone 8+ using ProCam app Slow Shutter/Light Trail mode set to 30 seconds]

[applestar]

I love my garden. There is a certain empathic as well as mischievously entertaining quality about it. I’ve mentioned how every time I step to a window to look outside, *something* catches my eye — sometimes soothing and enchanting me when I’m feeling down, sometimes surprising and intriguing me when I’m bored, and sometimes infuriating me for no apparent reason (...prompting me to yell at the garden-at-large that “It wasn’t funny!’)

Today, I had to go to the post office. I really didn’t want to, but it was necessary, so I got it done before it got too, too hot, and got home by 11am or so. I got myself a freshly made elderflower syrup (this time made with wood sorrel and lemon balm for the lemony note since I didn’t have any fresh lemons) and water poured over a tall glass of ice cubes, strolled over to my favorite window and settled down with my binoculars. No sooner than focused, I spy a movement — it was a hummingbird, visiting the Coral Reef (hot pink) Monarda. I watched her deftly flit right through the wires of the fence trellis. I guess that shouldn’t be a surprise since they fly in and out of the tangled honeysuckle vines. Although I couldn’t see from this angle, no doubt she was sipping out of the tall red Jacob Cline Monarda as well.


— I took these photos in the morning when I went out in the garden at sun-up

[applestar]

I came across this little sleeping beauty this morning —

“Wake up little bumblebee... the sun is up already — it’s two minutes to 6 am!”

[digitS']

I was trying to snap a picture of a honeybee in the strawflowers, this morning. Didn't work out well - plenty warm by then and she was very active .

AppleStar, your bumblebee reminds me of the only time that I have been stung by a bumblebee. It was very early and I had a big armful of flowers from the garden. As I'm holding the flowers - zap! Stung on the chest ...

By the way, the strawflowers have just begun to bloom and also attract yellowjacket wasps and ladybugs. The entomologists tell us that, along with the honeybees, they all drink nectar. Wild strawflowers are an important honey plant for Australian beekeepers, as I understand.

Anyway, the honeybees will be off to other flowers when there are many yellowjackets around. However, I have been quite lucky to have found that my cabbage and such have very few aphids when grown beside the strawflowers that DW likes to use in fall dry arrangements. They will bloom from now until frost and those bug-eating insects will be all over them, everyday. I can't help but think that they drift over to the cabbage now and then and carry off some aphids. And, Steve has to be very slow and careful around the strawflowers from here on out .

Steve

[applestar]

The larger wasps also carry off cabbageworms to feed their babies. A quick sip at the nectar bar, then back to the nursery with the baby food!


...but I think my garden is in trouble. DD forgot to turn the sprinklers off this evening and when I reminded her, she turned on the backyard floodlight to go turn the sprinklers off...then forgot to turn off the lights. I sent DD2 to remind her to turn them off, and while I was looking out the upstairs window at the flood-lit garden, I saw two big dark lumbering bodies sniffing at the gate to the 4 ft high fenced SF&H bed. At first I thought they were overfed, long-haired cats with bushy tails... but when I yelled out the window “Hey! What do you think you are doing there!” (Yes I speak conversationally to animals ...and insects and plants....) one of them looked up at me with masked face. RACCOONS! Of course just as they started to leave for the back fence in response to my “You’re not supposed to be here! Get outta here! Shoo!” ...DD turned off the flood lights.

I got the high beam flash light and shined it into the dark near the fence and heard them making their way over the fence and into the woods on the other side. But I know they will become bolder.

Well, that explains the turned over buckets and trampled pond-edge plants, one of my bog plant containers mysteriously having been pushed into the deep part of the pond and having to be fished out on Friday.... The resident Green frog has been silent — hopefully he is just hiding.

[applestar]

Specially noted in the garden today —

• Monarch Butterfly
• Eastern Tiger Swallowtail
• Fritillary (don’t know which kind)
• young Downy Woodpecker
• young Cardinal
• Ruby-throated Hummingbird
• Carolina Wren
• American Robin
• Titmouse
• Song Sparrow
• Garden/Garter Snake

[applestar]

Spotted two victims of the fly fungus disease. They affect pest flies as well as beneficial flies....




Subject: Will a kind soul please help me plan my veggie arrangement?

Spotted in the garden — One of puzzling discoveries in my garden that I had too look up, but have become a familiar sight — fly carcasses that died from the fly fungus disease:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entomophthora_muscae

Entomophthora muscae is a species of pathogenic fungus in the order Entomophthorales which causes a fatal disease in flies.

The mycelium of the fungus may grow into an area of the brain that controls the behaviour of the fly, forcing it to land on a surface and crawl upwards. The hyphae gradually grow through the whole of the body, digesting the guts, and the fly dies in about five to seven days.[4] When it is critically ill, it tends to crawl to a high point, straighten its hind legs and open its wings

...and of course I also walk around trying not to disturb/break the giant orb weaver garden spider webs that span 3-5 feet by autumn... the garden turns into an obstacle course since sometimes the spider changes where the web spans. (...oops can’t walk that way... oops got use the other path and come around from the other side... DUCK! Just past the gate...)


...opps sorry about the OT @lala01

[applestar]

- Yesterday afternoon, I glanced out the back window and saw a giant groundHOG in the backyard ! Banged on the window and scared it away, but I also replaced the batteries in my motion sensor lights and door chime/alarms to restore their sensitivity and sound/light levels.

- A chipmunk ran across the patio

- This morning, I let our two indoor kitties out on “supervised” outing. While I was tending the garden, one of them started making her “strangled meow” — I caught something! — noises. Rushed over to find frog belly and legs sticking out of her very full mouth! Immediately picked her front end up and lightly shook her to get her to let go —“You are NOT a ShadowClan cat!” The frog hopped into the grass under the glasstopped table, so hopefully it was not fatally injured.

- This afternoon, looked out of the window and noticed a ropy thing moving under the water in the pond. It took a minute, but realized it’s the snake! Watched it thrashing around under water, swimming all over under the Waterlilies. Eventually it came out and spent some time sunning on the lilypads.

— would you agree it must have been chasing something(s) in the water?

[applestar]

Daily routine — look out of the window, scan around until spot the hummingbird at one of favorite feeding spots, monarch butterfly feeding or flying territorial sweeps, and a black butterfly with a brilliant metallic blue streak on upper side of the wings which I haven’t been able to ID yet because it never lands — possibly Red Spotted Purple if it’s not a Swallowtail — That always seem to fly-by just below the window. ...and perpetual white cabbage butterflies.

It does make me really happy that the Monarch butterflies and hummingbird(s) are regular visitors in my garden.

[applestar]

I was just looking out of the window again and realized that the dragonfly air squadrons are here today. They are flying back and forth, mostly in the wide open space of the front lawn, but also in the airspace above the more cluttered backyard.

They are hopefully clearing some of the mosquito outbreak after the rains we had over the weekend. I was feeling like they have been more of them and becoming bothersome.

I always wonder if they fly above other people’s property as well. My DD jokes “I doubt I’ll see them if I look out of the windows. They are here for you, Mama.”

I saw one of the black butterflies make a sharp turn away from the front yard and swoop into the leaves of e fruit espaliers. Hopefully everyone else will keep clear, too, while the air show is going on.

[applestar]

This morning, I was out at first light, even before the sun had cleared the houses and trees — it had gone down to 56°F was only a few degrees warmer at that point. No birds out and about yet, I thought... then I went around the corner of the house and ran into a pair of hummingbirds flying at each other, chittering and swooping. Wow, they are up early!

[applestar]

I noticed I’ve posted at least one of these for every year in this category thread, so here’s the report for this year

Subject: Applestar’s 2018 Garden
Mon Sep 17, 2018 11:47 am

Yesterday morning dawned foggy — perfect for taking photos of all of the large spider webs I could find. They are mostly 3 to 4 feet or more across. The only exception is the one with pink ribbon — that one is a tiny web, maybe two inches across.

[applestar]

I nearly missed it, but there must have been one of those hatching events that attracts dragonfly and swallowtail flyovers yesterday. I was so intent on things going on at ground level I don’t think I ever looked up. I did see a solitary large dragonfly flying in the backyard over the pond, but that was the extent.

After coming inside, I was looking out of the upstairs window and noticed the swallows flying over the house and garden, and then also noted the dragonflies flying mid-level.

I called to my DD to get her glasses on and come to the window so she can see them, but by the time she got back, they were gone. It was almost like they were only waiting for me to notice before leaving… at least that’s what my DD said. Haha.

-— ok I can’t figure out why the quote codes are not working — I’ll fix it later —-
…. Ah ha! Got it! My text editor snuck in smart quotes .…

Subject: 2015 Backyard bird and butterfly (and dragonfly too) watching
September, 2015

I think I posted about one of these before – there was some kind of insect hatching event in my garden again.

The videos I took today were pretty low quality, but, someday, if I ever learn to edit and splice these videos together into something presentable and learn how to post it in a way that can be shared, I will.

Here are a couple of stills extracted from the videos (tap/click to enlarge):

image.jpg
image.jpg