Wildlife Wednesday September 2017

We've had a few fun visitors this month to the garden.  The first (and honestly the coolest to me) is some Screech Owls.  We aren't exactly sure how many are hanging around, but there a few.  You can hear them calling to each other at night.  You can listen here to see what they sound like.  No pictures of them unfortunately.  Here is the only owl that we've been able to photograph... my daughter's bath toy owl.  Screech Owl's look a little different.  They are short and stocky with a large head (Well this part is sort of accurate).  Eastern Screech-Owls, the type found here,  can be mostly gray or mostly reddish-brown. Regardless of their color, they are patterned with bands and spots that give them camouflage.  They are small relatively common owls in Texas.  I love their pointed ear tuffs.   Cornell's Lab of Ornithology has great information if you want to learn more about them.


We've also had a number of butterfly visitors to the garden lately.  I've found eggs and caterpillars on milkweed in the butterfly garden.










A day or two after I took these pictures we had a few really heavy storms roll through town.  Not sure what happened to the caterpillars, but I'm pretty sure they aren't in my garden any more.  I haven't seen them, and I haven't seem much evidence of the plants getting eaten.  I thought about bringing them inside, but I don't really have a place to put them.



We've had both Monarchs and Queens on the flowers in the butterfly garden pretty regularly, as well as a few other butterflies who aren't interested in getting their picture taken.  I'm now wanting to add more milkweed and other pollinator plants to the barrier garden when we do the renovation.

Hope you've enjoyed the wildlife visitors we've had this month. 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. Nice shots! I wouldn't worry much about the catapillars, what's important now is that yhe adult monarchs have nectar sources for their migration to Mexico. Thanks for joining in and for planting for wildlife!

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  2. How lucky you are to have Screech Owls in your garden. Those juicy caterpillars are good protein for birds and other creatures. The poor things barely have a chance to survive.

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    1. We are loving the owls and considering getting a screech owl house for the garden. Maybe for Christmas. Thanks for visiting.

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  3. Nice photos of the caterpillar and butterflies. I had a large section of milkweed which was visited by the monarchs until my husband mistook the plants for weeds and cut them all down. Time to plant more.

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    1. There would have to be a "Come to Jesus" talk if that happened in the garden. The closes we've ever come is a dog vs. carnivorous plant incident a long time ago. I almost had to stay in the dog house with the dog.

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