Sunday, July 5, 2009

Creatures in My Garden: The Birds and the Bees... er Deer

On Sunday we decided to have our lunch out on the lanai. This isn't something we do very often this time a year as the temperatures are in the mid to high 90's, but the sun was shining and everything was so green outside - we just couldn't resist.

We don't use a lot of harsh chemicals in our garden, with the exception being fire ant dust, which tends to just relocate them. As a result of that, we've got a nice coexistence of lizards, bees, butterflies, dragon flies, squirrels, birds, rabbits, and various other creatures.
Recently, in the hibiscus on the west side of my lanai (just behind the parasol), right against the screen, I discovered a Mockingbird building a nest. I went to have a peak and discovered three blue eggs. I don't want to frighten off the mother bird, so am trying to stay away. It's been a harder time keeping Harry away, but for the most part he's actually been very well behaved.
Looking out over our roses, rosemary, and sea grape - we saw a first...
... a deer. It was lovely seeing it roam around. I've never seen a deer by our house and while it was sweet to see it, it was also sad as on the other side of those trees is a wall. The wood isn't very deep there, so is not the best place for a deer. Even more worrying is the fact that an alligator has been residing in the area by the water that the deer was walking. This was something I didn't care to witness. Fortunately the alligator was either sleeping, or had hopefully moved on to another lake.
We've had snakes, herons, egrets, pelicans, and roseate spoonbills, however the alligator is the only unwelcome creature we've had in our garden.

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