Wildlife in the Garden - A Pleasure or a Pest?

Wow, love the photos they are so enjoyable

We live in the country so we have alot of wildlife Very Happy

We have lots of deer,racoons,o'possums,rabbits,turtles,lizards,
armadillos,skunks,squirrels,a large variety of bird and butterfly species,mole,foxes,coyotes,bobcat. So many to list, I'm sure I've left some out Embarassed

My Father-in-law is a butterfly collector.He has a large collection of butterflies from all over the world.His collection is so interesting, and he has lots of stories about all the places he has traveled.He is also a bird taxidermist.He has all kinds of birds he has mounted.He makes beautiful displays with the birds and butterflies. When he makes duck displays he makes the duck look like it is taking off out of the water. The 'water' is clear acrlyic (sp?) that he molds.He even makes the splashes in the water spill over. Hard to discribe here but he does such beautiful work. I'll have to post some photos!He also paints portraits of birds and butterflies. He calls himself a nature naturalist. I call him a very interesting and wonderful person! Very Happy

I love the wildlife! Last year was my first year gardening and this little guy flew into my life!

This is Jay the baby BlueJay I finished raising. We had just had a nasty storm blow through and I was outside in the yard checking to make sure everything had made it through ok. I happen to look up were I had a honeybee hive and saw this little guy trying to catch a bee. He had very few "adult" feathers and was mostly covered in the baby down. He suddenly flew at me and landed right in my hand! And just looked at me , squaling. So I lifted a peice of wood up off the ground and set him down so he could get his meal.

After that, he slept in my closet on the top shelf and during the day he was outside in the yard and learning to fly around. I fed him mostly by hand for the first few weeks. Then he learned to catch his food.

He was with us about 4 weeks. We had another big storm blow through and he was caught outside. I know he is fine. He was flying quite well and learning to catch his food in flight. I just miss him!

That pic was of him hamming it up for the camera! He would strike a pose everytime he saw it.

Aint he cute?

The other day I saw a bird making a nest in ym tree so I had a little talk with her about her taking care of her babies and not me! While I loved that little guy, it was hard work being his mama.