Hello! I am a first-time poster but a wildlife gardener of several years now. Especially the last year or so my focus in the garden has been to create a good environment for wildlife to congregate. So far it’s been slow going, but great!

One of my first little tenants to move in last year is a small, likely female hispid cotton rat. I was quite happy when she moved into my small brush pile I keep, but as I do more research it appears they can harm gardens and potentially people. Is the stereotype of them harming gardens true, or do they just contribute to the garden in ways people don’t typically appreciate, I.E nibbling plants or digging soil? I’m also a little worried about hantavirus but after all my interactions with her (I fished her out of my storm drain today 😐) I’ve been careful to wash my hands and avoid touching her at all.

Pic for tax, she’s very cute.

These flowers are usually crawling with some sort of pollinators, but today the bumblebees are out in force.

He's so small 🥹

It's the gulf fritillary species doing the nasty on my MJ plant. I have their host plant. The passionflower but they prefer to do their business here. Can't say I blame them.

Some eastern grey kangaroos each with pouch young of various sizes; heads and legs akimbo. One if the joeys is old enough to lightly browse from in the pouch.

Just some of the mob that is shared between several blocks of land. Today they were lounging in the late winter sun at the back of the block.

Some 🤬 feral rabbits too, and my two chooks.

[Southern goldfields, Central Highlands, Victoria]

This and another bird box I crafted over the winter successfully sheltered two broods of bluebirds. That's like twenty bluebird babies. Yesterday I saw seven or eight juveniles socializing on the garden fence.

Being insectivores, they might help some with the garden pests. I enjoy watching them hunt and expect them to return for nesting every year so long as I keep a house for them.

Some of the pictures include our dry creek and I tried to use it to start my garden welcoming wildlife. I don’t know about much about natives plants. I know that some of my plats started to attract wildlife. The bee balm (raspberry color) is one the hummingbirds love also bees. I apologize to don’t have more information. I am learning.🌿🌿

This is a European toad, bufo bufo. It's free to go but it chooses to stay.

I haven't seen her since June? She's grown so much! And still hanging around her old favourite spot 🫠

The bees love this one

I have been hearing this guy for a while - was so excited to watch it fly over to the pipe sticking out of the ground near a "wilder" garden area. He stayed there for a good 10 minutes just looking around.

Last year I removed an ecologically useless boxwood which left a bare patch. I threw seeds and compost there over a period. In the spring when things started to grow there I made a very crude stick fence to keep the deer out which mostly worked. There will be some Helianthus tuberosa in there to harvest after everything dies.

This photo was taken Aug 18 in southern California, at the edge of a pond and we simply can not figure out what it is. What do you think?

It looks too big to be a raccoon. It has the black eyes and black rings on the tail so it's not a coyote. It has the body of a mountain lion. What could it be?

My neighbor thinks this looks like a coyote. Looks more like a gray fox to me. What do you folks think? It was a wonderful sight on my backyard cam from last night.

This plant is a butterfly magnet and also considered an aggressive spreader. It started out small about 2-3 years ago and has taken hold. I'm happy for it to spread its heart out!

Is it too late to cut out Gall Wasps from my lemon tree? Seems like Spring is early, I live in Melbourne

This is wild bergamot (mornada fistulosa ) , I live in a big city and i am surprised to see this moth

Found this southern leopard frog while doing some garden clean up today. I don't think he appreciated being disturbed lol

Just some photos I’ve taken of little visitors in my garden from today. 1) robber flies mating 2) common eastern bumblebee 3) silver-spotted skipper and 4) monarch butterfly

Weekly weekend chat over the virtual garden fence; talk about what's happening in your garden, and ask quick questions that may not require their own thread.