Animals in your garden

[marlingardener]

We have all sorts of wildlife hanging around, talking trash, and generally making nuisances of themselves. Here is one of our major culprits:

Fortunately he hasn't found the vegetable gardens yet. He just hangs out among the flowers and looks cute.

 

[Beverly]

What kind of funny bunny is this? Is this what they call a "hare"...he looks like a walloby

 

[marlingardener]

That's an Eastern Cottontail. Why Eastern Cottontails hang out in Texas, I do not know! They range from Manitoba to South America, so you may have them also.
Hares are related to rabbits, but have longer ears, hind feet, and tail.

 

[BigC]

All mine are made from stone lol

 

[DeborahJane]

These are lorikeets. Amazing colours and quite bossy little things. I don't see them often, in fact I think this is only the third time they have visited. There was a cockatoo eating out of this feeder and the lorikeet hang off the chain above and told it off. The lorikeet is about a fifth of the size of the cockatoo. Obviously it won as the cockies all flew off.

 

[KKosy87]

How does everyone get such exotic animals in their yard? All we have are birds, bunnies, squirrels, the occasional fox and stray cats. We also live just a few minutes outside Baltimore City though!

 

[BigC]

View attachment 25618 These are lorikeets. Amazing colours and quite bossy little things. I don't see them often, in fact I think this is only the third time they have visited. There was a cockatoo eating out of this feeder and the lorikeet hang off the chain above and told it off. The lorikeet is about a fifth of the size of the cockatoo. Obviously it won as the cockies all flew off.

Thy are uber common in Brisbane @DeborahJane ...they love bottlebrush

 

[Beverly]

A little surprise in the Mexican Flame vine this morning
What have we here? A hummingbird nest mostly of fluff from the flowers gone to seed.

Oh, and a surprise inside

 

[wiseowl]

Good afternoon this my robin vising again,he often sits watching me when I'm digging and pops down for a tasty worm or two

 

[Beverly]

A little surprise in the Mexican Flame vine this morning

AND another surprise two days later. Another egg appears in the nest. In addition, the mother colibri (spanish for hummingbird) has been doing home improvements with more fluff and structure. I was thinking that perhaps the first egg might have pecked its way out of the shell. I wasn't expecting this.
I have two large Shrimp Plants blooming so they will have a good food source when they hatch. The Shrimp plants are a rich and favored food source for them. Still the mother may decide to allow only one to survive, it's her call.

 

[Beverly]

Awhhhh, mama hummingbird is sitting on the eggs. She is green and blends so well into the background you have to look 2 or 3 times to see her even though she is practically at eye level. Taking a photo would spook her at this point, so i am keeping a low profile in the garden. As long as i don't make eye contact she will not fly away.

 

[zigs]

Awhhhh, mama hummingbird is sitting on the eggs. She is green and blends so well into the background you have to look 2 or 3 times to see her even though she is practically at eye level. Taking a photo would spook her at this point, so i am keeping a low profile in the garden. As long as i don't make eye contact she will not fly away.

Aww, broody little chicken

We don't have hummingbirds over here, do they hum in Spanish like Mary Mary in Iglesia?

 

[marlingardener]

When our neighbors in town, who were from Piedras Negras in Mexico, saw a hummingbird in our garden,they became very excited. It seems that in Mexican Spanish, or in their local dialect, a hummingbird is a "chuparosa" or "rose sipper." How poetic!

 

[Beverly]

@zigs you know i never thought about how hummingbirds got their name. Mind you i have thought about why mariposas are called butterflies (butter, really?). I think hummers got their name because of the sound their wings make because they move so remarkably fast they do kind of hum. The sound that comes out of their vocal chords is more of a tsk tsk chatter not at all melodic, and a louder tsk tsk chatter when they are being territorial. I don't imagine @MaryMary humming in iglesia, but more like belting out a Roy Orbison tune in the library

 

[Beverly]

@marlingardener hummingbirds are "colibri" in spanish in Mexico, so the "chuparosa" is probably a regional expression...more technically translated "rose sucker"...not so poetic