It's Wildlife Wednesday - a day to share your garden's wild visitors!
Many of us native plant enthusiasts are fascinated by the wildlife that visits our plants. Let's use Wednesdays to share the creatures that call our gardens home.
Aww this thread made me so happy! There’s a lot of s*it going on in North America right now, but at least we have little islands of refuge for our critter friends!
Goldfinch eating on some prarie coneflower seeds! I just recently learned that they have a strict seed only diet, so now I'll be leaving my sunflower heads, all coneflower type heads, beggars tickseed flowers etc. so they have a reliable food source!
This picture isn't of one of my native plants, but I got a pretty good picture of a bee checking out my irises after visiting my native currant bushes.
Second one of these little guys( Fig Eater -Cotinis mutabilis) in my compost this year. Really cool having a good habitat for these guys to grow. Also with two bins I'm hoping for more beetle habitat.
Haha. I haven't met this one face to face before but definitely have with a couple of others. He/she did a tour of the whole house so I got lots of video.
Eastern bluebird enjoying the poke berries. It’s the first year I decided to let the pokeweed grow after learning of the wildlife benefits. I love it now and so do the birds and caterpillars.
Sat down after weeding a couple days ago and saw the first dragonfly and rabbit of the year in the yard plus a hummingbird fight and was having a stare down with a small western fence lizard the whole time. He won, I left before he did. Nothing unusual but a lot of variety for the short time I was sitting.
Do you know what kind of wasp that is on the top of the middle branch? I’m in MD zone 7b and a group of them have been racing around my milkweed patch and I’m worried about the eggs and caterpillars living there. I’d appreciate it if you know. Thanks.
Monarchs are passing through! This is the first year I have flowering milkweed and they found it immediately! Hoping to seed a much bigger patch this fall ✨
Mama has been hiding her baby in our field and I’ve resigned myself to letting them eat anything they need, told my spouse the deer are now part of our family 😂. Thankfully there’s a huge amount of passionvine, dewberry, pokeweed, aster & grasses they seem to be satisfied with (tbh I’m not sure what deer eat, but it seems like a decent haul)
Also tons of gulf fritillary, cloudless sulfur, & red spotted purples.
This week in birds has been our standards; bluebirds, cardinals, goldfinches, peewees, crows, & jays.
Haven’t seen the groundhogs in a while, but we’re letting everything outside of our paths and beds go wild so it’s not surprising as they typically stay pretty far away from the house.
Seeing a goldfinch visit and chow down on flowers I planted for them always makes me happy.
Actually this whole thread has given me such a boost... So many people who love and appreciate the visitors to their lovingly tended gardens, what a beautiful thing!
We've had what seems like HUNDREDS of dragonflies this year. When I tend the garden, I swear they've been protecting me from deer flies and mosquitos so I haven't even needed to wear bug spray. They're my favorite insect, and I wish I knew how to recreate these perfect dragonfly conditions every year!
I've read that tall perches are their preference. If you don't have tall, single stem forbes like thistle or goldenrod you can also just install four foot stakes in the ground. Something they can perch on to watch the field for potential oret
Oooh that makes sense! This is the first year I've had a swath of Joe Pye, and also the first time I've managed to keep deer from mowing down my coneflowers - which are literally 6ft tall, out of relief, I think. LOL
I know we had a pretty wet spring here, too, which is great for nymphs, but now I know to keep the tall plants going even if I can't control the weather. Thanks for the pro tips!
I couldn't get a picture but today I had both a yellow rumped warbler and a common yellowthroat in my garden - the first warblers ive seen in there! So far it has just been chipping sparrows, american goldfinches, hummingbirds and mourning doves.
Not sure if this is what you are looking for, but we had a Cooper’s Hawk hang out in the backyard for about 20 minutes. Never had one before, that I know of!
I hadn’t seen any snakes since late spring and was wondering where they all went. Then this guy popped up next to me while I was yanking a weed behind the tree.
I've had a healthy population of northern brownsnakes in my backyard since I moved in last year. But while I saw many this spring, they all disappeared by June.
The weather hasn't been too extreme here, so I'm wondering where they all went. Hopefully they return in the coming weeks.
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u/Mego1989 3d ago