Bewick’s Wrens

Posted on May 6, 2025 by Tina

This spring, for the first time, a pair of Bewick’s Wrens, Thryomanes bewickii, have built a nest in a husband-made birdhouse which hangs just outside the enclosed catio. Each adult has contributed to the nest with oak catkins, clusters of small twigs, and feathers. What goes on in the house during the nesting, I’m not privy to observing.

Bewick’s wrens have never spent time in my garden, building nests or otherwise. The go-to wrens for my garden have always been Carolina Wrens, who are absent this spring, though I hear their songs and calls in other parts of the neighborhood. Both species of wrens sing beautifully, with a variety of songs, chirps, and calls in their repertoire. Bewick’s males songs are particularly delightful and melodic.

During the most active part of the nest building, plenty of warning calls have sounded when the cats are in the catio, hunkered down, staring intently and entranced with the wren activity. The wrens remain wary, though they seem to understand that they’re safe from the feline predators. Still, they issue their warnings and state their objections to the cats’ presence, just to make their points.

Wren activity has quieted in the last few days. I see and hear one of the wrens, but the delivery of local building material has stopped. Is the female inside, tending eggs? Or have the couple perhaps decided that elsewhere is a better bet for their chicks? Time will will answer both questions, though I hope to witness fledgling wrens.

As cute as the adults are, how much more darling will be the fledglings?

Painted Lady

Posted on May 1, 2025 by Tina

Pollinators are busy this spring season. In my garden it’s been mostly bees-n-beetles as active pollinators, but hummingbirds have arrived and the butterfly population is ticking upwards with each passing week.

This Painted Lady, Vanessa cardui, worked several blooms in the front garden, spending some time at the dainty blue-violet florets of Blue Curls or Caterpillars, Phacelia congesta.

The butterfly crawled around the blooms, proboscis sipping, wary butterfly eyes trained on the gardener.

Pond Blooms

Posted on April 28, 2025 by Tina

The pond is a soothing focal point in my garden and as the days lengthen and warm, pond plants–blooms and foliage–add beauty, food, and protection for wildlife.

Resident and migrating birds bathe in the waterfall and bog. Bees, butterflies, damsel and dragon flies provide airborne energy, while the fish below add movement and color. There are three kind of fish in my pond: feeder goldfish (a whopping $.26/fish), ruby guppies (sort of mini-goldfish), and native gambusia (mosquito fish).

Bees, particularly honeybees, are regular visitors to the pond, choosing wet stones and wide, flat lily leaves that hold bee-sized puddles, as good places to pop in for a drink.

The eye-catchers of my pond flower in pink and purple. Pickerelweed, Pontederia cordata, is a pretty blue-purple native pollinator and aerator plant, the latter trait vital for a healthy pond environment. Pickerelweed sits in the bog section of the pond. For now, there’s plenty of space for water flow, after I separated the plant and replanted four sections with roots. The small fish swim in the area and the large raccoon who visits at night hopes to catch one of those fish. By winter, the plant will have grown and expanded, stems and foliage filling the bog, flowers topping the bunch. Water will still flow through the roots, mostly by way of the roots.

Often, though not on this day, dragonflies and damselflies flit above the water, perching gracefully on the tip of the bloom spike, their iridescence a jewel in the pond’s crown.

Lilies bloom year-round, though there are fewer after a hard freeze. The only time no lilies are found is during the period after I separate the plants, which I have not done this year. It needs doing, as water plants grow quickly and if I don’t separate the lily plants, the chore will be much more difficult next spring. But it’s painful to separate the plants and lose blooming lilies, even if it’s only for a few months. I would miss those lilies.

This pink-petaled, golden-centered beauty is a ‘Colorado’ lily and blooms happily in my Texas pond. I grow several lilies in my garden apart from pond lilies, one is a summer bloomer, the others open in late summer/fall.

I have a soft spot for lilies. My daughter’s name means lily.