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Boney critters of our garden |
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Boney?
What with the incredible diversity of boneless lifeforms (insects, spiders, worms,
you name it), the bone-in offerings seem a bit more limited. Especially since
birds hardly ever want to sit for a photo, this page has just a few birds, mammals and
amphibians...
Pondsters
We hope to see frogs every year in our pond. When we first put the
pond in, six years ago, we bought a few bullfrog tadpoles and watched them
grow. I think they survived the first winter, but one of the following winters,
they all gave up. Since then, we see no amphibian life in the pond in the spring
and early summer, but usually a frog or two (or more) will show up by mid-summer
and hang around for the rest of the season. With all the goldfish running
amock in our pond, frog eggs probably wouldn't stand a chance, so I doubt they
could successfully breed.
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A turtle is something new to our garden and pond. While driving through our
neighborhood one day this spring, Amy noticed this fella crossing the road,
and "rescued" it to our pond. Turns out it's an Eastern painted turtle
(Chrysemys picta picta), whose species is widely distributed
throughout the US. It was probably making its way from one of the natural
ponds in our area, in search of a better place to pass time - I hope it
doesn't mind its new digs. So far, it has been perfectly content, but until today
it was very shy - we couldn't get closer than about 20 ft away before it would
unceremoniously plump back into the (murky) pond. Recently, it has relaxed a
bit, allowing me to take this photo of our Boxy sitting amidst blue flag
leaves in the pond.
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When we first moved into our house, I used to see toads every now
and then. In the years that followed, the entire area around us was built up
in neighborhoods, and toads didn't come around any more - much to my dismay.
So I've been very pleased with their return in recent years, gladly putting up
with their shrill mating calls in spring. So far I haven't tried to figure out
which kind(s) they are - some certainly seem more brown, others more on the
green side. I also don't know if they reproduce in our garden - our pond's
bog filter seems like it should be a good place for toadpoles, but we have yet
to see any.
Furry ones
Mammal life is limited in our garden. We always have rabbits, and Mr.
Squirrel shows up to empty our birdfeeders in winter (but is nowhere to be
seen the rest of the year). We see our chipmonks some years, but not very
often, and groundhogs haven't made an appearance recently. Most voles we
see show up on our patio lifeless, victims of our predator kittycat. Deer,
who live on the other end of our neighborhood, have only ventured into our
garden on two occasions, and have not made it their larder thus far (knock
on wood!).
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Rabbits have discovered that our garden makes a great salad bowl. They are quite
bold! At this time of year (summer), they don't do much damage. Our vegetable
garden is enclosed - baby bunnies can get through the wire mesh, but bigguns
can't.
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One year, a family of chipmunks lived near our patio pond,
scurrying across the rocks surrounding the water. I never got close enough to
take a proper picture...
Feathered friends
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Okay, finally figured I should take a bird photo, just to even things out a
bit. So here it is - a Northern mockingbird, caught scoping out a nesting
location in our weeping cherry in late winter. Maybe I'll get better at snapping
bird pictures one of these days... |
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One of the few birds I can identify (so far), robins make quite a show of
themselves in spring. They stay away from me quite effectively, so I haven't
managed a better photo yet. I believe the one at left is female, the one at
right male.
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Robins are also the birds most likely to nest in our garden. We spotted this one
in late May, about 7 ft up in an arborvitae.
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American goldfinches (Carduelis tristis) like to splash about in the
area where our bog filter fords over into the swimming pond. They never let me
get close enough for a good photo, but I liked this shot, where one of the
boy-birds hasn't quite readjusted his do after a good wash-up.
Fish
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Okay, so maybe the fish in our pond don't qualify as wildlife - we introduced
them, and perhaps that makes them "pets". But the current set is several
generations removed from the original few, and they live off what the pond
provides naturally - so I say they are mostly wild.
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Visitors to this page have left the following comments| Debbie | Sep 05, 2005 | This site was very great and intersting. |
| Shankar Venkataraman | Jun 23, 2006 | Your site was inspiring and informative. Awesome.
You said that you don't feed the fish. Wow! Is it a natural pond.
Can you post a bigger picture of your entire pond. Do you maintain
the pond or is it a wild pond ? |
| Hannah | Jun 30, 2007 | Thats really cool! I have some goldfish too and I was wondering if you had any information on the spawning season? I have 2 fish and one of them is chasing the other aroud, but I don't know if they're male or female.
I'm not a fish expert, but from pond observations, I'd guess the littluns appear in early summer. |
| George Steele | Aug 02, 2007 | If you want to keep the painted turtle or other tortoises around, plant a small packet of collard greens nearby. They and the rabbits like to eat them. |
| erica | Sep 10, 2007 | I live in zone 4/5 and I had a pond for 12 years. I'd put my fish outside at the end of March and I'd have more fry than I'd want to. I even would sometimes get 2 batches a year. I do believe the water needs to be in the upper 50s for them to spawn. My fish would chase each other around all year long but I'd only notice the eggs in the early Spring. I could never tell which was male or female. |
| Deanna | Nov 15, 2007 | What kind of tadpole or toads did you have?
I really don't know - I'm not much up to speed on amphibian species... |
| Jessica | Dec 14, 2007 | When did the frogs lay their eggs. What month of the year?
I've no evidence frogs ever reproduced in our pond - they seem to find their way to our pond in summer. I hope that the fishless conditions of the bog filtration zone for our new big pond will be more conducive to amphibian procreation... |
| Avalon | Apr 02, 2008 | You have inspired me!! I am going to make a site like this. I love my garden and every little critter in it. Thanks!
Sounds great - drop me a line when you get your site started :-) |
| Mike | Aug 17, 2008 | Love it. What a great pond you have. |
| dia scholvinck | Mar 12, 2009 | I am very enthusiastic and shall be visiting your site often. In the animal area, having 8 acres, including woodland, we have plenty of deer, rabbits, squirrels, chipmunks, a fox or two, guinea fowl, ground hogs, wild turkeys but unfortunately no ducks who are shunning our pond in spite of a duck house. We succeeded in getting rid of the geese. And we have turtles in our pond. Unfortunately, we think that they are snapping turtles which we would rather get rid of as we swim in our pond. And we have a lot of shade, so I am hoping to be the first to arrive for your shade plants. When we first bought the house, we planted a small vineyard ... to the delight of all our critters ... and gave up. This year we will plant four or five rows of lavender in the vine rows, having discovered that no one except us is interested in it. Do you have any lavendula angustifolia of some sort? We would buy between 50 and 100 starter plants (5"?) if you do. We have tried with Munstead and were successful (our earth is stony clay). I think I still have all sorts of pots, I shall have to look in the barn and then I might drive bye next Saturday to say hello and introduce myself.
Looking forward to meeting you, Dia. |
| Maria | May 23, 2009 | I absolutely agree that the garden without wildlife is just an empty place. Like to watch animals,bees, dragonflyes etc. too. Amazing how many different spacies you will find if you look more closer. |
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Last modified:
August 08, 2009
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