osprey94's Blog

wildlife walk
Jun 8, 2008 | 7:32 PM PST

When the cold, miserable weather we're having broke for an hour or so today (I'm bitter), I took a walk through the woods and my gardens to check things out. It was a regular wildlife smorgasbord! First, I found an alligator lizard basking in the sun:

Then, I found this little sparrow fledgling hopping around the rhodies:

I TRIED not to interfere with nature, but she was so tiny and vulnerable and I was pretty sure she couldn't fly well enough to escape a cat or other predator, so I gave in and found her nest. After I placed her back in it, and went off to do something else, she must've hopped back out of the nest because the next time I walked by, she was gone.

She must've been determined to leave that nest!

The birds were so active today. The chickadees were flying right over my shoulder and landing in the birdbath with me not a foot away. The hummers zipped right past me, fighting and/or courting. I took a pic of the handsome male at the feeder:

The black headed grosbeak was at the feeder today, taking turns with some finches. How does one say "grosbeak" anyway? I've been pronouncing it like "gross-beak" and a coworker pronounces it "grahs-beak". Which is right? Both, probably. If I've been saying it wrong this whole time, I'm gonna feel REALLY silly. Anyway, here's the feeder:

Now, some updates...

The clematis I planted at the end of the deck has died back for some reason, but both plants grew a new stem so I think all is not lost yet. Didn't get a pic of it, though, unfortunately.

The lettuce/spinach and broccoli look fine. In fact, I've had two salads from this bed already. I planted a few more lettuce and spinach seeds in the greenhouse to transplant later. Maybe lettuce doesn't transplant well...we'll see.

The tomatoes look good. The early girl already has a little green tomato in the works:

The apple trees are COVERED in tiny apples. I'm going to have to thin them in the next few weeks:

The peas are nice and tall but I've lost a few plants already to some burrowing animal. The sweet peas didn't survive this. I have maybe one left and I originally planted at least 6 of 'em. Grrrrrr. We set up the wildlife camera to see if we could catch the varmint responsible for this, but we didn't get anything on film. You can just see one of his/her holes in front of the pea plants. There are similar burrows throughout my herb bed and the lupine bed, too. Moles? There aren't any mole hills, though!

That's about it, I believe. Tomorrow is my last Monday of the school year. In 2 weeks, we'll be in Yellowstone National Park and my inlaws will have to take care of my garden while we're gone.

Maybe soon, it'll feel like June instead of January. Please?