Wildlife Wednesday August 2019

Nature's camouflage is fascinating and August's Wildlife Wednesday is a good time to share a few examples I've observed recently in my garden.  Wildlife Wednesday is hosted by Tina at My gardener says..." on the first Wednesday of each month.

Close observation presents many surprising opportunities to enjoy tiny wildlife.  First up is a busy bee coated with pollen cleverly disguised in yellow blooms of Twisted rib cactus.

This brown moth on a Skeleton Leaf Golden Eye seed head blends right in.

On closer look it's mostly the movement which gives it away.



Red male cardinals have a bit of a challenge trying to hide but Mrs. C is harder to spot in the fig tree.

She's out in the open now fussing at me.

Not camouflage but a strange looking bird requiring a closer look.  This one took a minute to ID but then I remembered Tina's post from a while back showing a molting Cardinal.  That's what I think is happening here.



Birds breathe through their mouth and it's more obvious when it's hot out.  Between the heat and molting this poor guy has got to be very uncomfortable.

A common garden spider (Argiope aurantia) was reeling in her prey just as I walked by and before I could focus my camera.  Her web was so close to the ground I almost missed it.

I sat down beside her and neither of us were frightened away.   She carefully rolled up her bundle which was the size of a small bee while I watched.

Nearby in the garden bees are busy.

I think both of these are solitary bees.

 
An almost transparent cicada I nearly missed has freshly emerged from an outgrown, discarded shell to the right.

A slightly older cicada on Pomegranate 'Wonderful' branch.  It was the bird's nest wrapped in a recycled plastic bag which first caught my eye.  We live near a busy road and commercial center so there's usually a supply of plastic bags around which we try to keep picked up.  I've walked by this tree a number of times without seeing the nest tucked in there.  Observing the nest let me see the cicada as well.

Cicadas usually stick around for about four weeks after emerging from the ground.  They are noisy!  Those transparent wings are cool.

Tiny anole keeping to the shade on cool stone near the hose bib.  It was smooth-skinned and I also saw a green one so these are not likely invasive brown anoles.

It's too hot for a GIF this month.  I stationed myself in the shade for a while but GIFs take time to set up.  So we'll move on to the deer report.  It's time to protect plants from antlering.  All this velvet will soon be rubbed off on whatever is handy including young trees, agaves and many other unsuspecting plants you might have in the garden.

After the velvet is gone, he will stick to the woods where his antlers will be disguised as twigs.  Right now he's here for the water we leave outside the gate during hot dry weather so he's not as shy.

The same for these ladies which prefer to rest in dappled shade.  Scratches on her hide are hoof marks from mating.

That's the wildlife report from my garden the past month.  You'll find more wildlife posts in the comments at Tina's blog.  Try a wildlife post of your own if you're a blogger.  It's fun and I'm often surprised by how many wildlife photos I've collected when I sit down to create my post.

Wildlife Wednesday August 2018

The first Wednesday of the month is Wildlife Wednesday when Tina at My Gardener Says... provides an opportunity to share garden wildlife from July.  A few of these are from June since I missed posting the week of July 4th last month.

Again this year a Whitetail doe has chosen our corner as a base for raising her fawn.

Probably about one day old when it ran to the neighbor's door after being startled.

A snapping camera doesn't seem safe so it's out of there quickly.

Run, run, run



Oh, how sweet!

For just over a week they were likely to turn up whenever I went outside or even just looked out the window as in this photo.  She leaves her fawn for hours at a time to keep it safe but she's never far away and always on watch.  Fawns have no scent to attract predators and they can communicate from quite a distance with a series of sounds.  Deer are highly nomadic moving up and down the creek which runs through the neighborhood so we might not see them again for a few weeks.

A buzzard landing on the roof peak.  There's a small natural area full of typical wildlife like raccoons and possums along a busy road behind us which keeps the buzzards busy.

A Cardinal helping himself to ripe figs as viewed through the kitchen window.  It's always a contest because figs must be picked at the peak of ripeness.  Unripened figs are not tasty and do not improve with age.  We got a few figs this year in spite of the birds.

This month's GIF is a hummingbird on tiny lily-like flowers of an Agave stricta bloom.

I wasn't sure about keeping American Germander in my garden until I saw this Hummingbird enjoying the blooms.

So much work to do it needs a rest on the fence.

Cicadas are a dominant bug in the heat of summer.

I've not really thought of them as pretty but clear wings are interesting.  They chew a hole in soft plant tissue to lay eggs but I don't think this Agave sisalana is the place which is why it moved on quickly.

I noticed this Leaf-Footed bug on the rusty gate while out with my camera.

It wasn't until I downloaded the photo I saw the casing to the right.  I think this might be a newly molted bug leaving its old shell behind.

Bees love this Passiflora Foetida we rescued from an undeveloped commercial property nearby.  The process of collecting cuttings and seeds to get it established took nearly eight years.  Now that the vine has returned three years in a row I think we can say it's found a home here.  We've even successfully transplanted seedlings to other parts of the yard.

Not native but still popular with butterflies is Pride of Barbados which blooms in the hottest part of summer.

Same Swallowtail, different light seconds later.

Wings open reveal bright blue indicating a female Spicebush Swallowtail.

Queen Butterfly defies the heat to enjoy a native Kidneywood tree in dappled sun.  Queen butterflies are here most of the year.

Gulf Fritillaries are here almost as often throughout the year.

After a July thunderstorm the air above the garden filled with flying insects best seen against the shed as a backdrop.  There were hundreds of them.  Flying ants!  I got close to see for sure and just made out the shape of ants against the gray sky.  Mature ants leaving the colony to start a new one is called a nuptial flight.  Only reproductive males and queens do this when they are ready to mate.  The queens are the specks you can see and the males are less visible.  We haven't seen many new ant mounds yet.

Toads emerging immediately after a rain continues to be a mystery to me.  We have little rain in the summer and few sources of water for them.  I even looked it up and they take 7-10 days to hatch.  It's about the size of a thumbnail.  Baby toads and cactus, which of these doesn't belong.  Smart toads find a spot near the hose bib where life is good.

That's the roundup of wildlife in my garden for the last month or so be sure to visit Tina to see the wonderful wildlife her garden attracts and to check out the comments section for more garden wildlife.

Wildlife Wednesday September 2017

It is a busy time for wildlife in the garden: harvesting berries, raising babies, and trying to eat my plants.  It all makes for quite a Wildlife Wednesday show.  Wildlife Wednesday is hosted by Tina at "My gardener says...." on the first Wednesday of each month.

Male House Finch feasting on American Beautyberry (Calicarpa Americana).

Its bright magenta berries ripen in stages from the trunk.  Mockingbirds and Cardinals are the usual visitors and often wait patiently in nearby trees during the day to snatch each individual berry as it ripens.

Beautyberries are edible and apparently make a nice jelly but that will have to wait since all berries are now gone.  Fortunately this graceful native shrub roots easily where branches touch the ground, otherwise it wouldn't be easy to make new ones from seeds alone.

Black Carpenter Bees at work on Texas Sage (Leucophyllum frutescens) after recent rains.

If you've been noticing brown branch tips like this on trees in San Antonio....



.....those noisy Cicadas are the likely culprit.



While we don't get the crazy 17-year Cicada emergence cycles common on the East Coast and in the Mid-West, there was a large population of Cicadas this summer in my neighborhood.   Female Cicadas lay eggs in the branch tips by sawing an opening which leads to this effect.  Here's an explanation from State of the Planet by Columbia University's Earth Institute:

"Each brown branch tip you see is a spot where a female cicada sawed through a small twig with an appendage on her abdomen and laid a group of eggs.   When those eggs hatch – six to ten weeks after being laid – the newborn nymphs will drop to the ground, burrow down into the soil, and begin feeding on tree roots."

The effect is quite recognizable once you know what to look for.

Browned tips are noticeable all over my neighborhood this year.

Not the prettiest spot in the garden, but the toad likes it just fine.

Time to check in on the resident deer.

A fawn quickly losing its spots.  This one is probably about three or four months old and likely not the same newborn I featured in last month's post.

Mom is still watchful and will continue to nurse for another month or so.

An eight-point buck has taken up residence by the gate where we put garden trimmings out to compost.  He's probably eyeing that Evergreen Sumac (Rhus virens) in the foreground which wouldn't stand a chance without the fence.  I am that close to him.  No way would I be able to get that close a few months from now.  He'll soon be looking for plants to polish those antlers ahead of mating season.  The "antlering" of plants is the most destructive thing they do in the garden.

If they would just stay in the woods and away from the garden.

Visit "My gardener says..." for more garden wildlife posts.   This month Tina has excellent information on how you can help hummingbirds with their migration since their favorite stop in Rockport, Texas is out of commission as result as Hurricane Harvey damage.