In the Garden

It wasn’t long after we bought our first house that I  started birding, so when I decided to plant a garden in our backyard I immediately decided to grow flowers that would attract different species of birds to my garden. Since my main visitors were finches and sparrows, I planted Cosmos and Bachelor’s Buttons for the seeds they produced in the fall. The following year I spotted a hummingbird feeding on my Cosmos plants in October, so I began adding flowers which would provide nectar for both hummingbirds and butterflies, many of which I started from seed.  These include Scarlet Sage (Salvia sp.), Scarlet Runner Beans, Lantana, Verbena, Morning Glories, Four O’Clocks, and even parsley, a host plant for the Black Swallowtail.

As our backyard is quite small, it’s hard to create a real wildlife garden; however, we’ve had some interesting creatures visit our yard since we moved in in 2003.

BIRDS

I count all birds seen in or from my yard on my yard list. The species listed below have been seen in my yard unless otherwise noted as fly-overs or in a neighbour’s tree. I have made special note of the birds seen in the tree in my front yard as these are all species I have only seen once, usually through the window while I am working on my computer! The diversity of species can be accounted for by the fact that there is a crabapple tree across the street, which attracts Pine Grosbeaks and Bohemian Waxwings in years when they irrupt south; a cornfield just to the south of our subdivision (though as of summer 2012 it is being developed); a series of storm water management ponds to the west of us; and forest to the east of us. However, the subdivision itself is very open, with very few large, mature trees, which is why there are no nuthatches on my yard list.

Canada Goose (flying over) Great Blue Heron (flying over) Turkey Vulture (flying over) Cooper’s Hawk Killdeer (flying over) Ring-billed Gull (flying over) Rock Pigeon Mourning Dove Ruby-throated Hummingbird Downy Woodpecker (neighbour’s tree) Northern Flicker (neighbour’s tree) Merlin (on roof) Northern Shrike (neighbour’s tree) Blue Jay American Crow Common Raven (flying over) Tree Swallow (flying over) Black-capped Chickadee Golden-crowned Kinglet (neighbour’s tree) Ruby-crowned Kinglet (front tree) American Robin European Starling American Pipit (flying over) Bohemian Waxwing (neighbour’s tree)

25. Cedar Waxwing (neighbour’s tree) 26. Snow Bunting (flying over) 27. Yellow Warbler (front tree) 28. Blackpoll Warbler (neighbour’s tree) 29. Yellow-rumped Warbler (front tree) 30. Wilson’s Warbler (front tree) 31. Chipping Sparrow 32. Song Sparrow 33. White-throated Sparrow 34. White-crowned Sparrow 35. Dark-eyed Junco 36. Northern Cardinal 37. Red-winged Blackbird 38. Common Grackle 39. Brown-headed Cowbird 40. Baltimore Oriole (front tree) 41. Pine Grosbeak (neighbour’s tree) 42. Purple Finch (front tree) 43. House Finch 44. White-winged Crossbill (neighbour’s tree) 45. Common Redpoll 46. Pine Siskin 47. American Goldfinch 48. House Sparrow

MAMMALS AND INSECTS

Striped Skunks

Having feeders, of course, attracts wildlife of the four-legged variety. Two years in a row (in 2008 and 2009) I had a shrew visit my yard in the fall. He would emerge from the grass, steal a seed from the patio stones beneath the feeder, then disappear back into the grass, only to come back a minute or two later. As he never stayed out in the open for very long, it took a while until I got a decent enough photo of him to identify him.

Raccoons visit me from time to time, knocking my feeder onto the ground and then cleaning out the seeds. These brazen thieves don’t even flinch when we open the back door and shine a flashlight on them. Our best raccoon experience was when three babies came up onto the back deck one night and peered in at us through the glass! Skunks are also attracted to the seed beneath our feeder, although I’ve only seen one in our backyard the entire time we’ve lived here. Our best skunk encounter occurred when a skunk gave birth to a litter of six or seven babies beneath our front step one summer. The kits would play in my garden after dark before going hunting with mom; often they would turn their backs on one another and raise their tail, as if threatening to spray each other! One morning while leaving for work I saw the whole group returning to the hole beneath my step.

Fragile Forktail

Mammals

• Eastern Grey Squirrel
• American Red Squirrel
• Eastern Chipmunk
• White-footed/Deer Mouse
• Eastern Cottontail rabbit
• Striped Skunk
• Raccoon
• Northern Short-tailed Shrew

Butterflies

• Black Swallowtail (evidenced by a caterpillar found on some parsley)
• Cabbage White
• Spring Azure
• Grey Comma
• Red Admiral
• Common Ringlet

Dragonflies and Damselflies

• Fragile Forktail
• Black-tipped Darner
• Ebony Boghaunter
• Band-winged Meadowhawk
• Common Whitetail

My garden also gets a pretty good variety of arachnids, moths, bees and other insects; I haven’t created any formal lists, but if you’re interested, please check out my photo gallery on Pbase to see some of the more interesting creatures that have stopped by!

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