Shop Products
Houzz Logo Print
okiedawn1

Wonderful WIldlife Morning in the Garden

Okiedawn OK Zone 7
11 years ago

I was out early this morning---in the garden before sunrise, so I got to enjoy a little early morning company with the wildlife.

Hummingbirds are all over the place today, after being fairly scarce this summer. They're visiting the trumpet creeper vines, morning glories, honeysuckle, mimosa tree, etc. It is great to have them back in larger numbers than the standard one or two I see daily.

Cottontail rabbits were out in the driveway this morning near my garden. Just before sunset each day I put a couple of tiny piles of henscratch out there for them to eat. It is a sort of bribe to make them happy enough and well-fed enough that they leave the garden alone. It works pretty well, and I get to enjoy seeing them hopping merrily around. If they don't eat all the henscratch at night, they come back at sunrise to finish it off.

The damaged part of the butterfly population is building, and I mean that in a good way. While we had tons of spring butterflies and moths, we didn't see many sulphurs or swallowtails but now I am seeing increasing numbers of both. Still, the swallowtails are rare enough this year that I silently celebrate each time I see a single one. Usually we have tons of them but not this year. I'm also seeing a lot fewer destructive moths, although I do believe the SVBs have arrived. That's okay, though, because we've had about all the squash we can stand.

Today's favorite wild thing was the deer. A whole herd of them came wandering by around 6:45 a.m. First came two does, one with a tiny spotted fawn. They were looking for hen scratch and checking the compost pile. I've been putting peach peels and other waste products from canning on the back compost pile near the deer trail, so they come by and check it daily to see if there's something good to eat there. The fawn just wanted to eat--I saw it nibbling at something on the ground--and to play. It was running in circles, sort of kicking up its heels and I stood and watched for about three minutes. Behind them came a buck that I consider "our" buck. He has an atypical rack, so it is easy to spot him and to be sure it is him. He just destroys our young persimmon trees every year, but I like seeing him here anyway. Last year, he brought an orphaned fawn here to eat for all of July, August and into September and I put out deer corn, hen scratch, oats, etc. for them since there wasn't much in the way of native plants for them to eat during the drought. Until I saw him bringing that fawn here, I never knew bucks would look after a fawn like that. After the buck, along came three yearlings. The whole herd was only here for maybe 5 to 7 minutes, but I enjoyed watching them as they warily watched me in return.

Dragonflies are growing in number, likely because of the lily pond's water. They come to the garden and hang out similar to the way birds do. They sit on top of tomato cages, flit around from plant to plant, etc. They are very beneficial because they eat lots of pests.

On the down side, the purple martins have left the purple martin houses and moved to the woods. I don't blame them as the houses must get unbearably hot. The adult martins have raised their young so that part of their work is done and I guess before we know it, they'll be leaving. I miss having them sitting on the porches of their houses's chattering to me in the mornings, but they still swoop by occasionally while hunting for food in the mornings and evenings.

The unwanted wildlife is mosquitoes. Every day or two I dump out the dog's water buckets to rid them of mosquito larvae. I do the same with the small wading pools and pans of water we keep filled for the wildlife.

Sometimes it is so hot that I'm just out to the garden and then quickly back inside again without taking time to linger and watch the wildlife around me, but today while it was early, I was able to linger and watch the wildlife and it was so nice.

Dawn

Comments (18)

  • susanlynne48
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Wow, sounds like magic at your house, Dawn!

    You're right, after the spring migration of butterflies, I've been down to Cabbage Whites and a handful of Sachem and Fiery Skippers. I did see a couple of Bordered Patches, same of Hackberry Emperors, and one tattered Black Swallowtail in the past few weeks. Spring produced many, many butterflies, tho, and right now, it's just hot.

    I did see my first hummer, so quickly put out the feeder. He/she is visiting regularly now, but mostly to the flowers - a Lavender Porterweed, Hamelia patens, Texas Star hibiscus, and the sunflowers for protein. This morning the Caroline Wren appeared in the Honeysuckle vine, buzzing and buzzing. Don't know what she was upset about. I have Cardinals that reside here year-round, House Finches waiting for the sunfloewrs to go to seed, but my garden provides a lot of cover, a few berries and seeds here and there, so I always have birds flying around.

    Right now, I have too many wasps, Giant Ichneumons, Robber flies, etc. Too few Gulf Fritillaries have survived these visitors. I may have to bring some in to raise. The wasps patrol their favorite plants - usually the Fennel, False Nettle, Passion vine, and milkweeds. I wish THEY would disappear. Soon they should be converting to nectar instead of "meat". They were really late in arriving this year. I have not seen Lacewings this year - one or two maybe, but that's all. So their population appears to be down.

    The Wild Indigo is finally growing back after I rid it of the Genista moth cats. I hope I get a few Wild Indigo Duskywing cats before year's end. Kenna and I raised a few Sootywings that we found on Lambsquarters growing in her yard. They are so tiny, though, that the chrysalis is only about the size of a bean. They are a dark colored spreadwing skipper.

    I like to get out early in the garden, too, Dawn. Before the drone of traffic and other city sounds take over. I do have a fountain that helps kinda drown it out, but when the bustle of everyday living begins, not much helps in that regard.

    Picked some tomatos, cukes, and watered a few plants. Feeling like a lazy day is upon me.

    Susan

  • pattyokie
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I opened up a gardening site & found poetry. Thanks, ladies. Beautiful descriptions of your gardens.

  • chickencoupe
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Love it!

  • Okiedawn OK Zone 7
    Original Author
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    The butterflies I'm seeing are various kinds of sulphur, but mostly the cloudless sulphurs, and I am seeing a lot of gulf frits. The gulf frits in such heavy numbers are kind or a surprise because I don't grow passionvines. Somebody near me must grow them though or I don't think we'd have such a large population.

    In the garden, the butterflies are mostly visiting the zinnias and tall verbena (verbena bonariensis) while the hummers mostly visit the coral honeysuckle or morning glories on the garden arbor and fence when they are not preoccupied with the mimosa or trumpet creepers in the yard.

    I was so worried about the lack of swallowtails this spring that I planted extra parsley for them, and left many of the carrots for them as well. Still, I am lucky to see a swallowtail or two once a week. It looks like their population is not rebounding very quickly.

    Today western ironweed and some of those aged carrots started blooming, so both should attract more pollinators to the garden.

    Susan, It sounds like you're having a lovely butterfly year despite the weather. That's terrific.

    Patty and Bon, Thanks. Every day, I believe our gardens are poetry in motion. It is just that often, we are so busy rushing around getting chores done that maybe we forget to stop, take it in and enjoy it. It was so nice and cool early in the morning yesterday that I just slowed down and took it all in.

    This morning was a lot hotter and I was out and in again quickly, only harvesting (and killing a few blister beetles on the cukes) and then scurrying back to the nice cool house.

    Even though this year's hot weather is not nearly as extreme as last year's, I'm not a fan of high heat, especially in combination with high humidity, so I hibernate inside the air-conditioned house for most of each day. I miss seeing the wildlife, but then they likely are lying low during the heat of the day too.

    If I sit outside in a lawn chair, quietly, in the evenings I am usually rewarded by the sight of the cottontails coming out to eat, and often raccoons, possums and armadilloes as well. Usually the martins are around, and occasionally a bat swoops by. Sometimes I'll see deer, or less often coyotes, bobcats or foxes. Everybody, it seems, comes out looking for a bite to eat around the time the sun goes down. The frogs often are croaking. I'll come in if mosquitoes are a big issue, because of the risk of West Nile virus, but we regularly put mosquito dunks in the two ponds that still have water, and that helps keep the mosquito population down.

    Dawn

  • biradarcm
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    What a great pleasure read this post!!!! Unfortunately not many wildlife visits our garden. But we love walking early morning hours in the garden with a cup of coffee, just sit there in the bench and watch few little critters, birds and butterflies, never feel like we are in city! -Chandra

  • slowpoke_gardener
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Some times we have hungry visitors. I think maybe these swould be sweet potato/ pea bugs because they sure like them.

    These were taken Sunday, the two fawns same out to within 20' of my sons pool while we were out there visiting, the adults came out after I left for church.


    Larry

  • susanlynne48
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    That's such a beautiful image, Larry! I don't get to see the ginormous wildlife critters, being in the city. Altho, we have possum and bandits (raccoons). I leave some fru8t and veggies on the porch as they are scrounging for food, too.

    I have some of the beautiful Japanese MGs blooming right now, some yet to begin. They really love the heat! One is a pink with white spokes, fading to a blue/purple, then white picotee. Another called "Grey Morning Mist" is a greyish, pinkish with a pink eye - stunning! Of course, Chocolate - the solid version - is always pretty. Another called 'Plum Delight' is a brilliant purple with a white picotee edge with huge blooms, variegated trifoliate leaves. I am waiting on Red Speckled, Purple Double Kyoki, Jamie Lynn (white with a pink eye), and my Lavender Moonvine to bloom yet.

    I am still getting tons of tomatos! What? I really only water the darned things! But, yum, yum! Little Lucy Okra is delish right from the vine. Lee is coming on, too.

    Dawn, I have either Silvery Checkerspots, Gorgone Checkerspots, or Bordered Patches on the Sunflowers - 2 different groups of caterpillars. Can't ID them until they get a bit larger. Also, Gulf Frits are crazy egg-laying on the PV now. You may have some native passion vine in your woody area. Or, neighbors around you. Usually, tho, the Gulf Frits hang around where their host plants are available so I am guessing you have some close by.

    Swallowtails are appearing more to the east of us, and populations are low this year. I have so much Fennel, and usually tons of cats, but nothing right now. They may show up for fall because their chrysalises do overwinter here.

    I have had virtually no Black, Pipevine, Tiger, or Giant Swallowtails this year. I don't generally see Spicebush here, nor Zebras. These two are found more in the Eastern part of the state.

    I've also had very few sphinx moths visit, other than the Tobacco.

    Susan

  • slowpoke_gardener
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Susan, picture is in my son's back yard. He sometimes sits a game camera on the picnic table to see what type of critters are hanging around. I put an electric wire around my two main gardens and make the deer go across the street and eat his veggies. I do however share some of my crop with them.

    You can see that the deer dont look really well, we have had a very long, hot, dry spell. We have had 4" of rain this month and the grass is coming back and the deer seem to be eating nonstop.

    Larry

  • soonergrandmom
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Larry, When my peppers started looking wilted from the sun I decided to give them some kind of cover. I had lots of row cover which lets about 85 percent of the light through, but that seems to cut enough rays to cut down on the wilting. I have hoops that are four feet wide and made of 1/2 inch conduit, but of course, that is not tall enough to cover a full grown pepper plant so it needed to be lifted up some. I went to Lowes and got some 3/4 inch conduit and Al cut it in half and we stuck the bigger stuff into the ground about a foot and put the half inch arch across the top and covered it with row cover, so the bottom four feet or so is open and the wind can flow through, but it has this arched covered white top. I didn't even consider the size I was making it, and was just trying to cover the bell peppers, but it also provides afternoon protection to the hot peppers planted on the east side of it.

    Everything is working just fine, but our bedroom sits up higher than the garden and Al's says every morning when he sits up on the side of the bed and looks outside, he thinks there is a covered wagon in the backyard.

  • Okiedawn OK Zone 7
    Original Author
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Larry,

    I love the photo. Our deer aren't as thin as yours, but they were that thin, or even worse, last year.

    Yesterday when Tim came home from getting a haircut he came in with a bag of deer corn and we put some out for the deer this morning. I put the deer corn right by the back compost pile near the deer trail and the deer were there eating it 10 minutes later. It was the same herd that I described in the first post on this thread. They didn't come until about 7:45 a.m. Something is scaring the deer and rabbits because they are becoming very scarce in the evenings, and don't come out in the mornings until well after sunrise. This is a change in their pattern that has occurred within the last week. Yellow Cat, who was a feral cat for a decade before he settled into our place, adopted us and retired from being wild and self-sufficient won't even leave my side right now, and would stay inside the house 24/7 now if I'd let him. When he starts hiding out inside like that, or sticking to me like glue outdoors, that's another sign the predators are getting too close to the house. I haven't seen any or heard any, but we had a coyote hanging around a couple of months ago. Likely it is a coyote that's scaring them.

    Susan, I've never seen native passionvine on our land nor have I ever seen it anywhere in Love County. It might grow down in the wild river bottom areas, but we've been down there on fires and on drowning searches/recoveries and I've never seen it there either. Remember that we're more of a grassland than woodland type ecoregion, although there are some stretches of woods along the river and along creekbanks. I wish we had native passionvine here. We do always have gulf frits, though, so there's got to be passionvine someplace. My guess would be it is more in the eastern part of our county because the soils there are better and there's more woodlands along the river.

    I've seen giant, black and spicebush swallowtails this summer, but not very many of any of them. Usually they are as thick as flies, so I really miss having the usual hordes of butterflies around.

    Carol, That sounds like a great way to shade your pepper plants. As hot and dry as y'all are there, I know they must really appreciate that shade. My peppers wilted a couple of days in June when rain hadn't fallen and we were over 100 degrees but haven't wilted since then. They do get shade from the pecan tree beginning between 2 and 3 p.m. and that seems to be helping keep them happier this year than they were last year.

    Dawn

  • slowpoke_gardener
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Carol, that is funny, I bet Al grabs his bean bowl and runs outside thinking it may be the Chuckwagon.

    I have not installed any covers on my peppers yet, but will have to later. My DD gave me a 6 by 12 green shade cloth and Madge has found 3 old sheets I can use. I also went out about an hour ago and trimmed the sweet potatoes back, they were trying to cover my peppers. I may let a few of them grow and tie them to the trellis to form some shade for the peppers.

    I also picked 4 Walmart bags of veggies and sit them next to the edge of the hwy. where a crew was working on a bridge and told a couple of the workers that if they could not figure what they could do with them, to please bury them for me. From the smiles I got I expect they had figured what to do with them.

    Larry

  • Pamchesbay
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Dawn - beautiful post. I can see your butterflies, hummers, rabbits and deer in my mind's eye. Made me realize how much I miss time spent outside. But Lord, it's been so hot. Heat index of 115 at 1 pm today.

    A few years ago, we came home late, after midnight. As we started down the driveway, we saw three majestic bucks standing on a high mound about 50' from us, and a dozen or more rabbits scampering around their feet. It was a magical sight. I have never seen that tableau again, but it surely happens. When it's so very hot, I don't spend much time outside and miss seeing the critters.

    The honeybees aren't active now either - you see large masses of bees on the front of their hives, as they try to cool off. When they do this, it looks like beards are covering the hives - so this phenomenon is called a "beard."

  • soonergrandmom
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Larry, that gave us a chuckle. Al would probably welcome a chuckwagon around here since the cook has been a little busy with the gardening and harvest lately. I did take the time to make him a blueberry pie today.

  • Okiedawn OK Zone 7
    Original Author
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Larry, That was so kind of you. I bet they'll smile at you every time they see you now.

    Pam, Your heat index is too high. Ours is high early in the day, but then the humidity drops as the temperature rises and by lumch time, the heat index is usually about the same as the temperature. Then, as the afternoon goes on and our RH hits maybe 20-30%, sometimes the heat index actually goes lower than the heat index.

    Today I was outside harvesting from about 6:20 a.m. until around 9 o'clock and then the heat drove me inside. It's pretty bad when your outdoor workday is over by 9 a.m.

    Sometimes I slip outside to the garden for a few minutes in the afternoon when the heat index is less than the temperature. I'd almost rather be outside when it is 103 but feels like 101 than when it is 85 and feels like 93 or whatever.

    Last year's heat and drought here in my part of OK were much worse than this year's so far, and we had tons and tons of deer coming. I'd be leaving the house to go to a fire or coming home from one in the dark of the night and there would be deer everywhere. That's why I kept seeing the buck with the atypical rack. He's so distinctive that he's easy to recognize. He'd bring the fawn at sunrise and sunset to eat, but he wouldn't eat then. He'd just stand guard, so to speak. Later on, in the dark of the night, he'd come back and eat. I think that's when he was rubbing on the young persimmon trees, pretty much destroying them in the process.

    I love watching the wildlife but sometimes we have too much of it. We have a very tall garden fence (8' in some places, 10' in others) to keep out the deer, or we wouldn't have any veggies or herbs at all. Once the deer discovered our landscaping around the house, they devoured it, so now I only plant what they absolutely do not eat or only very rarely eat, which doesn't leave me a lot of options.

    Today only 2 deer came while I was in the garden harvesting corn. As I harvested, I was tossing the cornstalks over the fence which scared the deer, so they didn't stick around long. We had a lot of rabbits out though.

    I have seen honey bees and butterflies visiting my melons and squash, but not huge numbers of them in this heat, and I normally only see them in the early morning.

    Carol, If you baked him a blueberry pie, then he has nothing to complain about.

    Crap, fire pagers going off for two fires. Gotta go. Bye.

    Dawn

  • soonergrandmom
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Dawn, Actually Al grew up with a mother that wasn't much of a cook, and always tells people that he knew when breakfast was ready when he could smell the eggs burning and hear her scrapping the toast. LOL So he has always thought he was in 'foodie heaven' since we married, and never complains. In fact, I'm not sure we have had a meal at home in the 40 years we have been married, that he hasn't told me was good, but if I am too busy to cook he will suggest going out, or just go make himself a sandwich if I don't want to go out. If I say I would like to go out and eat, he never hesitates.

    Al loves blueberry pie and it is not one of my favorites. I like blueberry pancakes and blueberry muffins, but pie is just a little too much blueberry for me. I'm the same way with pumpkin, I like pumpkin bread, and that Paula Deen cake that is called something like Pumpkin ooie, gooie, butter cake, is to die for, but I don't especially like pumpkin pie. Al and our youngest son are not big sweet eaters, but they both like pie. In fact, they were here a couple of days after his birthday, and before they came I told him I was cooking chicken fried steak for his birthday and he could choose desert, thinking he might like a birthday cake. I started naming things and he stopped me and said I can make this easy, coconut cream pie.

    I can make pies quickly so that is a good choice for me. I asked Al yesterday if he wanted a blueberry pie and his answer was, "That would be wonderful". I quickly made the pie and put it in the oven and sat down at my computer to rest for awhile. I got up to do something and I could smell the pie. I said, "Oh, I forgot about the pie", and he said, "You don't have to make it". I had it made and baked before he even knew I had done it and I got to the kitchen just as the timer went off. I just happen to think pies are easy.

    I had wildlife in the garden last night. I flipped on the back light as I opened the back door and I had a possum about 8 feet in front of me. Gee, I hate having those things around.

  • chickencoupe
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Dang, I went looking for a post from Dawn as I assumed her absence might be from fire calls. Sure enough. Maybe the cloud cover will reach that area and cool things off; maybe even rain. I hope everyone's enjoying the cooler temperatures. 106 degrees today was just too much. Highs tomorrow at 107 degrees. That just sucks! maybe tonight's lower temps will help thwart that? One can hope..

    bon

  • soonergrandmom
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    It was hard to sit here at 105 and watch two storms, one on the west in Oklahoma and one on the east in Arkansas, and both just one county away, especially after I saw the temp drop down into the 70s with the storm.

  • okievegan
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    My garden wildlife consists almost entirely of insects and lizards. I've got green lizards, brown lizards, lizards with red, lizards with blue, curious lizards, shy lizards, quick lizards, meandering lizards...I don't know where they came from, but I think they are the reason that grasshoppers haven't destroyed me completely. I wish I could do something to keep them here in the future as well.

Sponsored
Groff Landscape Design, LLC
Average rating: 5 out of 5 stars47 Reviews
Northern VA Award-Winnning Landscape Design-Build Firm | Best of Houzz