Wildlife Wednesday July 2014

Over the nearly three years I've been blogging I've enjoyed sharing some of the wildlife visitors to my garden under the heading "Garden Visitors" and now I have even more reason to post these photos.  Tina at "My Gardener Says.." has started a new meme as a way of sharing the wildlife we encounter in the garden and she's invited garden bloggers to participate on the first Wednesday of each month.  I'll join in as often as I can starting off with a few of our wildlife visitors this year.

We have to watch our step in the gardens lately since these little toads, barely an inch long, are running rampant for the first time in years.  I think that's due to several weeks of regular rainfall which has left small pools of water in the creek.  They are probably Texas Toads and will provide a natural pest control service the rest of the summer by eating the mosquitoes which are resulting from all this rain.  With the local bat population decimated, this is a positive development.

Keeping things on the small side, a grasshopper climbing up the Agave ovatifolia -- nothing edible here.

A Golden-fronted Woodpecker has developed a taste for hummingbird nectar.  Until we caught him in the act I thought the raccoons or squirrels were dumping out the feeder leaving a sticky mess on the deck each night.

Here's the big guy in action.  You had to know I wouldn't do a wildlife post without one of those great Awesome Motion things.  You can even see the drips as he tilts the feeder!

Staying with the bird category, one of the resident hawks spent a few minutes in a tree beside the house.   It appears to be a red-shouldered hawk.  It's unusual to see them so close to the house because they usually stay by the creek or the field behind.  Hawks are so graceful when they fly.

This cute little rock squirrel enjoyed chewing the emerging foliage on the Mexican Hat wildflowers earlier this spring and risked danger to get it.  He/she was not about to give it up no matter how close I got with the camera.  These are interesting to see because black squirrels were rare and considered quite special in the northeast.  Rock squirrels are fun to watch as they are more graceful and not likely to raid the bird feeder because they nest in the ground.

Then there are always the deer.  This buck dropped by for a cold one during one of last winter's freezes.  We would try to break the ice on the bowl now and then or add warm water so all our wildlife visitors could have a drink in the very dry winter.

That's just a few of the visitors to my garden so far this year.  Next month I'll focus on the butterflies.  Be sure to check out the comments section Tina's blog post here or join in and post a few of the wildlife visitors to your garden.