Wildlife Wednesday: August 2017


Welcome to my garden for Wildlife Wednesday!  We have had a great year for hummingbirds and bats so far.  I've even caught the hummingbird fighting over our Turk's Cap earlier this month.  Unfortunately, they always seem to catch me without a camera.  The bats are obviously a night visitor.  They swoop around us when we swim at night, slapping the water to get a drink.  The first time it happened it was a little startling, but now it's part of night swimming.

We have lots of dragonflies all around the pool this year.  I've left them some of the old daylily scapes and iris bloom stems since they seem to enjoy perching on them so much.  There going to need to find a somewhere more appropriate to lay any eggs.  My pool isn't going to cut it for any dragonfly larva. 


 Of course we have pollinators.  This year have had a wide variety of pollinators, including many of these black bees.  Anyone know what they are?  They aren't aggressive and just buzz around from flower to flowers.  I've seen them almost exclusively in our daylilies.


This year we've stepped up our pollinator game and added a solitary bee house.  Solitary bees are basically the superheros of all the pollinators and out pollinate honeybees.


It appears that someone has taken advantage of the house.



Finally we've had some awesome looking beetles in the garden this year.  Here is a close-up of them.  I don't know what they are (clearly my college Entomology class isn't cutting it), but their green metallic wing covers are stunning.  Here it's crawling around one of the hibiscuses in the tortoise garden.  Lucky for him, Petunia (our tortoise) is an herbivore and has no interest in him.


Thanks for visiting.  Wildlife Wednesday is a time for Garden Blogger to celebrate the wildlife in their gardens and community.  If you want to learn more visit My Garden Says.

Comments

  1. Wonderful wildlife in your garden and what a great dragonfly shot! Bats are fascinating creatures but I get a bit freaked out when they're flying around inside the house.

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    1. I can only assume there is a story involving bats in your house. I love bats...outside. They do not belong inside any house, mine included.

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  2. Your little bee house is so cute, I need to try something like that though the bees seem to find their own homes in our "holey rock" limestone. The bees have some pretty flowers to keep them occupied. Good to hear about your bats. We used to sit out and watch them go after mosquitoes but bats are much rarer now.

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    1. The house was kind of an impulse buy at a local garden center. I love it. There are a lot of really good looking styles. I also really love the "insect hotels" that some people create for their gardens. Thanks for stopping by!

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  3. I LOVE your solitary bee house. I need to make one for my garden. They usually use old hollow twigs, so it is hard to track how many I have. Great idea! David/:0)

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    1. Thanks for visiting! I have learned a lot about solitary bees after I decided they would be a great addition to a badge workshop I ran for some Brownie Girl Scouts. They can use paper tubes too. That's what I had the girls make.

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  4. Not a good bug, well not good to me. It is called a "Junebug" which makes no sense because they always show up in July around here. They munch on hibiscus leaves, okra leaves and other vegetable leaves in the garden. They are also not good navigators and will smack into your head when flying. The upside is that they don't bite and will disappear in a month.
    Jeannie @ GetMeToTheCountry.Blogspot.com

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