Tag Archives: Wildlife Gardening

Spring Garden

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I’d originally planned three posts profiling my gardens this spring, one each for early spring, mid-spring, and late spring. My garden changes a good bit between February and June. Life renews and it’s fascinating and affirming to witness the seasonal changes in flower, foliage, and fauna.

Well, early spring scooted right past me and late spring is knocking at the door, insistent to enter, but this is the first “spring garden” post I’ve managed to produce. It’s been a busy few months with plenty of distractions.

The back part-shade garden is filling in after winter’s freezes. Early bloomers are mostly done and beginning their seed processes, summer bloomers are arising from the Earth, growing in stature before their blooms begin.

In March and April, there were sweet columbines and iris, scads of spiderwort, and sprinklings of native Gulf Coast Penstemons, Penstemon tenuis.

These pretty, bell-shaped blooms don’t last long, only about 3-4 weeks, but they make a nice impact in the garden and provide for pollinators. Their seeds will feed some birds, some squirrels, and ensure this plant’s future in my garden and probably elsewhere.

Another native perennial which flowers in mid-spring, more blue than purple, is the native Lyre-leaf Sage, Salvia lyrata; these bloom in concert with the penstemons.

This photo, taken yesterday, shows the former flower stalks, now seed stalks. I’ve seen Painted Buntings, Lincoln’s Sparrows and Clay-colored Sparrows nibble at these seeds.

A wider look shows the garden in its “short” form. Come mid-June and going forward, many of the plants that you don’t notice or even see in this photo will be 4-5 feet tall. The early spring bloomers will be gone, or will have resigned themselves to green, ground-hugging rosettes, many offering seeds, at least for a time.

We never got around to cleaning the pond or separating the lilies and the Pickerel Rush.

It’ll be interesting watching these plants during summer. They tend to bloom well in spring, then mostly provide foliage protection for the fish during the heat of summer, with occasional blooms flowering up from the base. I wonder if my not having separated them this spring will make much difference in bloom production?

Once the heat sets in, this shady part of the garden provides respite from the relentless Texas sun. But so far, it’s been a cool spring–and wet! I’m not confident that our drought is over, but we’ve received some drenching storms and the plants (and gardener) are happy and appreciative.

The front–all full sun of it–is bursting with color, form, and life. Migratory Lincoln’s Sparrows, Painted Buntings, Common Yellow-throats flit through the garden, nibbling whatever seeds and insects that come their way, filling up for their trip north to their breeding grounds. I occasionally chase a couple of neighborhood cats out of this wildlife haven.

Early blooming perennial spiderworts and annual poppies provided pops of color and good things for the pollinators. They were accompanied by flowering shrubs that like cooler temperatures, like Globe Mallow, Spaeralcea ambigua,which is still in full bloom.

As is typical and planned for, the purples and blues are dominant in the garden in this middle part of the spring season. Red, yellow and orange will get their turn to show off in summer. White flowers also come into their own during summer and fall, and are restful for the eye.

About five years ago, a friend gave me a couple of sprigs with roots of Blue Curls, Phacelia congesta, an annual Texas native spring wildflower. They’ve seeded out–and how! This year’s bumper crop of the unusual caterpillar-looking wildflowers has provided color and lots of movement in the form of visiting pollinators.

There aren’t any pollinators on this Blue Curls cluster, but that’s an anomaly; these diminutive blooms are pollinator powerhouse plants.

Blue Curls are bunched up at the edge of the garden. The slender, tower-like plants toward the center are the soon-to-bloom American Basket flower, Centaurea americana. This is another pollinator favorite and summer bloomer.

My Basket flowers have grown even taller since this photo, though I have pruned by half some of them. With pruning, the towers grow bushy, multi-branched and more shrub-like. Also, since they’re shorter, I can enjoy viewing the flowers! Those colossal towers are too high for me to see anything but the bottom of the blooms and the pollinators flying above them.

In another spot of the garden, I love the combination of Blue Curls, with their lacy green foliage, paired with the ruffly grey foliaged Globe Mallow.

The stand of Hill Country Penstemon, Penstemon triflorus, has been stunning. I see carpenter bees nectar stealing, but the main pollinators of these flowers are the many Hummingbird, or Sphinx moths that visit at dawn and sunset, and sometimes during the day.

Deep blue Henry Duelberg sage, Salvia farinacea, complements cheery yellow Engelmann’s Daisy, Engelmannia peristenia. These two will bloom well into the summer months and potentially, through fall. Both are excellent wildlife plants: nectar and pollen for pollinators, seeds for birds-n-beasts. Oh, and the gardener really likes them too!

It’s a mixed-bag with the bloom stalks of my Red Yucca, Hesperaloe parviflora: This one produced 10 stalks; some others have none. Usually, my established yuccas each shoot up 3-5 stalks. I’m not sure why some didn’t produce any bloom stalks this spring, but the tough, evergreen foliage is still worthy and welcome in the garden.

Though fleeting, spring is a special time of year in any garden. Gardens are fresh, life is everywhere, and it’s not at all difficult to find color, texture, and wild things active.

What’s growing in your spring garden?

Almost Lunch

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On a sunny morning last week I was in the garden catching shots of pollinators doing their pollination thing. I spied a Sphinx moth (maybe the Banded, Eumorpha fasciatus) working the rich pink, tubular flowers of my Hill Country Penstemons. Sphinx moths are extremely quick flyers and before I could take a photo of the moth at the penstemons, it zoomed, blurred wings in action, to a red blooming Autumn Sage, Salvia greggii. I snapped a couple of shots and then heard a flump.

I peeked around my camera and at my feet a Blue Jay had landed, wings akimbo, flopping on the ground. At that point, the moth flew off with lightening speed, the jay following in blue-streaked pursuit. Clearly, the jay thought it had a chance at a meal and winged in for the snatch. This all took place in a matter of seconds.

I don’t know if the jay actually had claw or beak on the moth at any point, but the moth escaped, bolted upwards and outwards, zig-zagging, first left, then right, and then headed off over the street and away from danger. The Blue Jay veered left to the neighbor’s tree and squawked its disappointment (and maybe embarrassment?) at missing a meal.

There’s never a dull moment in the garden!

Winter Birds

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As spring is almost upon us and wildlife is ever more active, I realize that it’s been a while since I’ve published a variety-of-birds post. I’m still an active Project Feederwatch participant and remain interested in the urban bird population here in Austin, especially those who spend time in my gardens. I haven’t taken as many photos of birds as I typically do during winter as cataract surgery with down-time afterwards, followed by a gardening year’s worth of winter pruning has kept me busy and away from the camera. But avian antics are ongoing and I’ve caught a few of those to share.

For the first time in several years, I’ve enjoyed the presence of more than just one Yellow-rumped Warbler, Setophaga coronata and one Orange-crown Warbler, Leiothlypis celata. These charming song birds over-winter in warmer climates of North America and I always have at least one of each hanging out in my garden. This winter, I’ve observed as many as four Yellow-rumps together, all nibbling nicely under the peanut feeder. I should have grabbed the camera, but opted to simply watch and appreciate. Mostly, it’s been two or three, zooming around the garden, perching in the trees and chasing off competitors. One in particular–this guy,

…is the self-appointed Badass Bird King of the Garden, chasing the other Yellow-rumps and Orange-crowns away from “his” feeder. The little stinker dominated the icicled suet feeder during the ice storm in January.

Lots of birds were active during the ice storm and I made certain that they had plenty of seeds during those cold days. I also dripped outdoor faucets so water remained available.

This Northern Cardinal, Cardinalis cardinalis, safflower-seed-in-beak, brightened those dull days of ice. All of last year, two different Cardinal couples were regular visitors to my garden, though both couples nested elsewhere. So far this year, I see only one male and one female.

Both common woodpecker species show up for their daily dose of peanuts. This male Downy Woodpecker, Dryobates pubescens, comes rain or shine, warm or cold. I haven’t seen the female in a while; is she already on the nest? I can only tell them apart as the female lacks the red hat that the male sports so handsomely.

Year-round there are always plenty of chatty House Finches in my garden. The House Finch, Haemorhous mexicanus, ranges throughout the U.S., Mexico, and parts of Central America. They may be common birds, they’re fun to watch and are, wings down, the most talkative of any of my resident birds.

This couple didn’t mind dining amongst the icicles. Their favorite food are safflower seeds, but they also eat sunflower seeds and sometimes, peanuts.

Like the Yellow-rumped Warbler, the Orange-crowned Warbler, Leiothlypis celata over-winters here in Central Texas. Both Orange-crowns that have spent winter in the garden are females; they don’t have the orange “crown” of the male. Males flash their crowns to impress females, establish territory, and warn predators. I really like this tiny bird. It’s not as colorful as many other warblers, but it’s lovely to observe as it flits through shrubbery or in trees looking for insects and takes offerings from the peanut or suet feeder. Look at that sweet face!

In these next two photos, you can see bits of yellow underneath the tail feathers on the Yellow-rumped Warbler.

Birders have affectionately nicknamed Yellow-rumped Warblers Butter Butts because of these yellow feathered bums. This winter I hadn’t made much effort to photograph the yellow rumps, but before these cuties migrate north to their breeding grounds in the central part of the U.S. and southern Canada, I really should snag a shot of a butter-colored butt.

Of course I should!

One last showy resident bird, the Blue Jay, Cyanocitta cristata, is noisy, gregarious, and typically I see seven to ten of these characters everyday, snitching the peanuts-in-the-shells that I put out each morning at sunrise. Later in the day, they settle for the shelled peanuts and sunflower seeds–and spend time yelling at other birds.

The Eastern Screech Owl couple were in the garden until their nest box was raided. I suspect that a Grey Fox (I’ve spotted one, or more, in our neighborhood) is the egg thief. I grieved for the couple’s loss, but they started their family very early this year and still have plenty of time for another clutch. I hoped they might return our nest box, but so far, except for two days, mama owl hasn’t chosen to spend time in our nestbox, trying it out for her next family. I doubt that they’ll return to our garden this year and it’s likely they’ve found another, safer place to raise their chicks. I wish them all the best–but I’ll miss watching them.

Spring is on its way and change is inevitable. Migratory birds have begun their movement northward, local birds are wooing and nesting. Winter, the dormant time of year, sees the garden active with birds, but spring brings new life and the promise of a future.