Friday, October 8, 2010

There are other creatures out there enjoying my garden.

I’ve realized there is an entirely different crowd hanging out in my garden when I’m not around. I’m not talking about the birds, spiders and insects. I see them all around me all the time and I am very aware of their comings and goings. No I’m talking about whatever creature has decapitated and deseeded 2 different sunflowers at night and left them as offerings, for me to find the next day.Where did these sunflowers come from? I have no idea. The closest ones I know of are a block and a half away and they show no signs of nighttime marauders.

Some unidentified visitor knocked this little agave to the ground, breaking two leaves and scattering pebbles and soil all around. I have no idea who it was daring to hurt one of my agaves.
At least I’ve ID’d this furry interloper, she's the neighbors cat Sophie. She seems to be very at home on our patio, or under the shade pavilion, or napping on the lawn, or bird watching under the Magnolia.
I actually found a furball yesterday morning. Gross.
We’ve been woken in the early morning by wrestling raccoons (they really were very cute) and I’ve found semi-solid evidence of creatures with upset stomachs passing through the garden. Sometimes I wish I had a night vision camera hooked up so I could keep tabs on all the action.

What about you? What’s the strangest evidence of critter garden party that you’ve ever discovered?

13 comments:

  1. We have problems with squirrels, digging burying acorns all around the garden. We pull up about 50 oak trees a year.
    But the strangest one is leaf cutter bees, who nest in our pots and dig out compost and gravel all over the place.

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  2. Lila lets Sophie nap in the garden? We have a possum who does a great job with the snail population. The creeping fig on the back wall acts as a hedgerow for nesting for the possums, one of the reasons I hate to cut it back too often. Good nesting sites are rare in this urban area. There's squirrels running along the telephone wires, eating the jacaranda tree nuts. There's actually quite a lot of animal activity going on if you know where and when to look.

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  3. What a cute 'furball' on the chair there!
    Great question! Evidence included the creatures themselves...Strangest has been a peacock since living here in the Seattle area. The most unwelcome visitor I've had was a Mojave green rattlesnake and her babes nesting in one of my garden beds when I lived, where else, in the Mojave desert.

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  4. We have had them all....Possums, Raccoons, Rabbits, Herons, Owls, Deer. The terriers do a pretty good job at keeping them back. Wish the dogs could do something about slugs!

    Wyatt's Mom

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  5. Trash can overturned and garbage strewn about by raccoons. Or maybe the worst was a noctural visit by a family of armadillos, who rooted through a newly planted bed and unplanted a number of things.

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  6. Way back when, we had some visits from great blue herons that stopped by for snacks of koi from the pond. We decided koi were too expensive for heron-food and switched to basic goldfish. But as far as I know we haven't had herons again. (I did run out last week to chase away an egret.) That's okay. Have you ever had to deal with big squirts of great blue heron poop?

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  7. Spiky O, yes I agree the bees are a strange one. Have you caught them at work?

    Denise, Lila is an indoor dog unless we are outside with her and she's too short to see out the back windows to know her space has been invaded. If she actually sees Sophie in the back yard then a chase quickly ensues.

    Aerie-el, really a peacock!? That's amazing! As for the rattlesnake...OMG! That might be the end of me gardening!

    Wyatt, I am so so lucky that we don't have deer!

    Pam, yes I thought of your armadillos while I was writing this. That is freaky one!

    James, no I have not...and that is just fine with me!

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  8. I hadn't donned my wellies in some time, and when I tried, my foot would not go in. Turns out some critter (I suspect a squirrel) had been stashing the hulls of sunflower seeds in there.

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  9. I can't best the peacock but I have heard a Fisher in/near my backyard. They make quite a noise. Other people in the neighborhood have seen them but I haven't yet. I'm trying.

    Weirdest evidence? I had a 3 foot tall freshly planted mock orange pulled out of the ground and carried off down the block. I don't know by what and I did manage to replant it with no further damage. I've always wondered what did that - a deer?

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  10. A couple weeks ago I found two big rat turds on an aloe. Yuck.

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  11. Enjoyed reading of the night time antics! Can't say I have anything out of the ordinary going on of late (thank goodness). Your patio is so pretty - love all the containers and the stock tanks.

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  12. ricki, funny! So it sounds like they must have returned time and time again to accumulate a quantity?

    Diana, So I wonder why it/they started down the street with the mock orange but then chose to drop it? Very interesting...

    Megan, yes...double yuck!

    Whimsical, thanks for stopping by! And yes...that is a good thing!

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  13. My friend Carol has just that--a night motion sensor camera so she can see the next day which critters are invading her gardens. Would you believe we've got a little possum coming around to our house in the early evenings? It's the very first one I've seen since we moved here 12 years ago. He's awfully cute.

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