Animals in your garden

[Chuck]

Our Buzzards are hawks @marlingardener

Found a strange red thing in the greenhouse today

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Looks like someone has been snooping around in your greenhouse and lost their toupee. Better disinfect the area as the snooper looks as if he is infested with huge gigantic red spider mites.

 

[Chuck]

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This Black Swallowtail showed up today. IIRC it is a tad early for them but I saw a Giant Yellow Swallowtail a few days ago. Just another sign of Spring is coming.

 

[roadrunner]

Mocking bird taking a bath.

Bonus Trivia: This is our state bird

 

[Chuck]

Mocking bird taking a bath.

Bonus Trivia: This is our state bird

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It's the Texas state bird too. It's also a good tomato and peach destroyer.

 

[roadrunner]

Mocking birds are great at catching insects in flight, never see them at the birdfeeders eating seeds. However, I do see them eating (besides bugs) tons of berries and other fruits, so I can see them eating tomatoes and peaches.

I allow many berry-producing plants to grow and it seems to keep them happy and away from my tomatoes, although I did once have a blueberry bush that I purchased and could only harvest one or two berries off of it

Some of the plants/weeds I allow to grow to appease our state bird: Pokeweed, Beauty berry, American Nightshade, various greenbrier vines in the Smilacaceae family.

 

[Logan]

Collered doves on the bird table

 

[Sheal]

I have lawns surrounding my home so how has a badger found and decided to dig up the two small pieces of turf I used for patching!

 

[Logan]

I have lawns surrounding my home so how has a badger found and decided to dig up the two small pieces of turf I used for patching!

Have you got a fence or a hole that he got through?

 

[Sheal]

I live in a rural area @Logan and fences here are mostly four strips of wire running across posts. This is the only image I have to show you. If you're curious about the log, it now has a bird bath on top.

 

[Logan]

Oh i see @Sheal
I wish i did.

 

[nitram]

I am up in Morecambe at the moment.

 

[Becky]

That first photo is hilarious @nitram!

 

[Sheal]

Lovely images Nitram.

 

[zigs]

Love the pigeon Martin

 

[roadrunner]

These are common ground doves (best I can tell from ID'ing on the internet).

What's interesting about these birds is that I see them roosting in my garden a lot (on the ground) and they've gotten so use to me that they are very reluctant to fly away when I walk up to them, most of the time I don't see them until they start walking way -- I've gotten as close a meter to them and they don't fly away, even though they're up against a fence.

They also remind me of love birds, since they're always very close to one another, often resting against one another when roosting.