May 20th is world bee day!
What are you currently doing for wild bees in your garden? Do you see any rare species? Any bee boxes up? Which flowers are they enjoying the most? Any bee-related facts or tips to share?
Mummy duck had flown out of a clump of Iris unguicularis at the base of a wall, nearly 4 weeks ago, (frightened the life out of me!). I counted 11 duck eggs and, surprisingly, 2 pheasant eggs. She must have decided to use a ready made nest, but there was cause for concern as I envisaged her leading poor baby pheasants to swim, along with her ducklings. She was sitting in the walled garden, so tall wire barricades were put up, so when they did hatch, they wouldn’t make their way into the main garden and I could leave the gate open to the big pond where the ducks and moorhens hang out. Of course, best laid plans and all that, I returned from a morning out to find them pootling about on the lawn (which is a fledgling meadow), and later, to the fish pond where they had their first swim, and a hasty floating ramp was quickly put in place, made from an old kneeler pad that I had. 10 ducklings, on inspection of the nest there was one unhatched duck egg and 2 squashed pheasant eggs, so maybe they were old when she starting sitting on them.
After those adventures, a phone call from our neighbour told me they had crossed the road (more stress) and were heading to the big pond there. So now I hope they are as safe as can be, and I am quite relieved as finally I can do no more!
Resident Robin waiting patiently for his treat mealworms..he's been so busy recently between nesting and fledglings..this morning he had a healthy breakfast of one really large slug! I didn't know they eat slugs!
I need some help with ideas of what I can do for the birds with the amount of space I have. I have two medium sized trees, on roughly a quarter of an acre of property (with a home and garage on it). Ive got some berry bushes, native species of wildflowers, an organic pesticide free garden space. Birds love my yard, however im starting to feel like theres not enough space for them to quite move into my yard, they've now chosen the garage gutter next to the garden to start nesting in. A lot of birds are nested in there and I dont have the heart to just let them live in the gutter. Besides planting more trees, what else can I actually do to help provide these birds habitats, would it be realistic or beneficial to start hanging birdhouses up in the larger tree I have?
Im 25F. Ive only had access to community gardens in my earlier 20s briefly. This is the first I've had access to my own land for the last few years, this is honestly my first real chance to grow things and work with a space thats mine. Its not much, the property in total is roughly a quarter of an acre.
I wanted to support a healthy envrioment, that really matters to me. I started to learn about it. Went crazy with the native wildflowers since they also benefit my land/soil.
My small property has become a small critter filled colorful and more preferable for critters than the grass lawn culture surrounding.
I meet new kinds of critters/friends everyday Im working in the yard that I get to learn about.
I love it and I want to keep going and the birds love it, so I don't want to push them out of my property at all, just maybe try to provide a more preferable habitate space for the future that will support how many birds are living in my yardspace.
I have no idea what im doing but I try to.
I dont know what I dont know and besides stringing up some bird houses im unsure if theres a way I can creatively solve a sorts of bird hotel thats better than the gutter with the space I have working with. Am I being realistic on growing a sorts of thriving ecosystem from this small property? Has anyone else been through this?
More about pirate bugs: Genus Orius - BugGuide.Net
this is year 3 - should i cut any of this back or just wait? when i send these pics to chatGPT its says its mostly weeds and to thin it out so more flowers can grow, but i wanted to see what others might say
Area - Chicago, 6a
Just bought a house and there are tons of these small purple flowers everywhere they are very pretty and im curious what they are
Found this little fella. It was so surreal seeing it because I don’t come across stuff like this in my backyard.
I probably scared it but I left it alone after taking a couple of pictures
Make good habitat and they will come.