May Wildlife

Life was pretty hectic in May between work and visits from family, which is why my post for Tina's Wildlife Wednesday is a few days late.  With the busy month, I also felt like I didn't get much quality time in the garden, and even less time to photograph my May garden visitors.  But looking back on my photographs tells a much different story.  Even with limited time in garden, I got pictures of so many different types of wildlife.  It makes me wonder how many more critters visited my garden this month that I didn't get a chance to notice.  Here are the ones that I did spot:

Bees, Butterflies, & Other Insects

One of my favorite visitors this month were the Black Swallowtail butterflies.  I need to give photo credit to my hubby for the cool pics of the swallowtails.

This female is laying her eggs on some of the flowering dill in my container herb garden on my back patio.  My fennel, dill, and parsley are constant hosts for the swallowtail caterpillars, which can be found in various instar stages at any time on my plants.

And while clipping some lemon balm for a floral arrangement, I found this empty swallowtail chrysalis.  Maybe it even belonged to the momma swallowtail who is now laying her eggs on my plants for the next generation of swallowtails.

 Next in the insects are the the skippers that visited my garden last month.

Perfect camouflage to blend in with the sunflowers.  I have to say, these are my favorite pictures of wildlife this month, and while my husband is pretty good at catching some cool pictures, I get to take credit for these.

Another skipper sun bathing on a zinnia leaf.

The bees were also loving the sunflowers this month.

And when they weren't feasting on the sunflowers, they could be found on the shasta daisies.

Or even on the Graham Thomas roses (yellow must be their favorite color).

This katydid nymph was hanging out on a gladiola of one of my garden bouquets last month.

Reptiles

There have been plenty of green anoles scurrying around the yard lately.  I found this one sun bathing on the oleander leaves.

The Texas Spiney Lizards have been more numerous than ever.  I see several of them every day out in the courtyard or scampering across the garden.  Today my dogs were going crazy over one that kept playing hide-and-seek with them.

There have been so many spiney lizards, that I was even able to get two in one shot when they were playing around in the courtyard - one is on the rocker cushion, and one is on the bottom rung of the table.  Do you see them?

Mammals

We always have white-tailed deer around the neighborhood, but I usually see them only at dawn and dusk, and they scurry away too fast, so I usually can't catch them on camera.

However, after some strong storms in the area last month which knocked down a lot of branches in the neighborhood, the deer came out of hiding in the morning and feasted on the fallen branches and stuck around long enough for some photos.

They didn't like too many pictures being taken, so were quickly off to find their next fallen branch for breakfast.

Birds

I've spotted plenty of mockingbirds this month, including this guy, who looks to be an adolescent.

The black-chinned hummingbirds (female and male below) continue to feast at the feeder at dawn and dusk daily.  When I'm outside, I generally hear them before I see them - the buzzing they make with their incredibly fast wings is an unmistakable sound.

And while I can spot blue-jays year-round in my garden, I find them to be one of the trickiest backyard birds to capture on camera.  They don't stay at any one place very long, but can be viewed flying from limb to limb or fence post to fence post throughout the day.

Amphibians

Last but not least is a toad that I found on the back porch one evening in May after some heavy rains. My dogs LOVE chasing toads and frogs, and while I tried to deter my dogs from "playing" with this little guy, I eventually had to let them outside and they eventually caught the little fella.  Such is life I s'pose.

Thanks for visiting my blog and reading about the May wildlife in my garden!

Wildlife Wednesday - April 2015

It has been a very active month for the wildlife in the yard.  The weather has warmed up and the wildlife knows it is time to get out, start attracting mates and creating the next generation of critters. 

The first critter in the yard was Ms. Carolina Anole.  These friendly little lizards have become much more active now that the weather has warmed up.  As I was doing some garden work over the weekend, I noticed this anole hanging out in the garden shed.  I didn't want to leave her in there to bake, so I quickly caught her, took advantage of the photo-op, and released her back into the "wild."

Another fun critter spotting was this giant leopard moth caterpillar.  I spotted a similar one back in January, but no sightings of it in its moth-like form...yet.  I do hope I spot one this year, as they look to be pretty amazing creatures.

The most peculiar bug I spotted in March was this little guy below.  At first I thought he was just a twig nub on my pomegranate tree.  While I was inspecting the tree for buds, I notice the "twig nub" move!  

After a couple of pictures, I tried to get him to walk onto a stick so I could investigate closer.  Turns out the animal was a worm-looking thing and the "twig" was it's shell of sorts.  Anyone have an idea on what it could be?

I was happy to spot this ladybug on one of my roses, one of nature's pest controllers.  Then I realized I must have pests - aphids on the rosebush.  I sprayed the plant with a high-stream jet of water to knock them off.  Hopefully Mr. Ladybug will get the leftovers.

I wasn't quite as happy to spot this snail.  There are many more where it came from, but (knock on wood), I haven't seen them destruct anything in the garden...yet.

Enough about the creepy-critters.  Let's move onto my feathered friends.  I'm most excited to see that the bluebird house has a new resident, though not a bluebird.  A titmouse couple is nesting in here, but I have not yet spotted any baby birds or eggs.  They will certainly be quite cozy when they do arrive, as the nesting materials are made of soft furs, fuzz and moss.

My pup is certainly intrigued by the new inhabitants.  I frequently here Mr. Titmouse making a big fuss - apparently he doesn't like Jeb sniffing around his property (quite the Texan he is).

I'm also happy to report that one of the wren houses has wren residents - though no pictures to show.

The screech-owl nesting box, however, does not have screech owls.  It seems to have everything but.  First, it was European starlings that we kept chasing off.

Then, it was the fox squirrels.  After several attempts to discourage them from nesting, we finally gave up and let the squirrel nest this year.  I just hope that she has some cute baby squirrels as a result.

This seems to be her favorite position - just hanging out of the entrance.  

Other birds making their homes in man-made boxes are the purple martins.  This house is actually in my neighbor's yard, but I get to enjoy the view of the purple martins from my house and love seeing them soar overhead.

Other birds of note during the course of March include the last museum of cedar waxwings.

As well as my first sighting of a male red-winged blackbird.  I've noticed the females hanging around the last few months, but this was my first sighting of the male.  He was accompanied by a female.

One other new avian creature was this mourning dove.   I have, what seems to be, nearly a hundred doves flying around our neighborhood, but they are primarily of the white-winged dove variety.  I spot Inca doves from time to time, but this is my first time spotting the mourning dove kind.

The Northern mockingbirds (our state bird) are being extra showy right now, serenading their sweethearts in hopes of finding true love, or at least their next baby-momma.

And then there are the regulars, like Mr. and Mrs. Northern cardinal (I only have one pair, as far as I am aware), and the sparrows.

As well as the lesser goldfinches.

It has been an extremely busy month for wildlife with the arrival of spring.  Check out more Texas garden wildlife and other wildlife in gardens around the world over at My Gardener Says, where Tina hosts this fun meme every first Wednesday of the month.