NEVER ALONE IN THE GARDEN

My garden friend over at Red House Garden just posted about all of her wildlife friends that she encounters while gardening. I thought it was such a great idea that I've decided to do the same.

Butterflies are a daily thrill. This one was found in the leaves this past Autumn.

It's a Gulf Fritillary.

Dragonflies are also a daily joy. This is a new one that follows me around when I water plants.

As I got closer and closer for a clear view, I also learned that someone else was closing in for a different reason.

Same agave point, only one split second later.

We have these green lizards everywhere in the garden.

It's called a Green Anole.

Hmmm.....that twig is misplaced. Yep, that's right. It's an inch worm doing a fine imitation.

I don't usually spot these when I'm in a hurry.

I use no pesticides or chemical fertilizers and have perhaps a dozen different species of bees in the garden.

Most are solitary like this bumblebee.

Since my bee population has gone up, I've noticed that my red wasp and yellow jacket wasp populations are way down. I don't like paper wasps, so I'm fine with the trade off.

Do you know what this is? It's called a twice-stabbed ladybeetle.

I found this one on a prickly pear. I've since read that they are one of the few insects that attack and eat scale. I hate scale on my Opuntia, don't you?

Read all about this wonderful creature right here:

http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/NE/twicestabbed_lady_beetle.html

The biggest surprise I've ever had was finding this leopard frog in my garden.

We had these out in the country when I was a small boy.

I've never imagined having one here in the middle of a huge city.

I've named him Leroy.

This insect showed up in my garden last month.

It's not a boxelder bug, but it's in the same family.

I'll be doing a follow up post on it soon.

I took this photo this morning. I'm finding black swallowtail caterpillars all summer since I've let the wild dill grow in the front garden. It's one of our wonderful native plants and makes a nice wispy ground cover.

Finally, let's talk about squirrels. I have a love/hate relationship with them. When they look like this one, I can't help but smile.

I'll end with this character. This dragonfly OWNS our backyard. He returns every year to our pond. I think it's called a Neon Skimmer.

Well that concludes our look at wildlife at Tropical Texana. Next time I'll write about our cats.

As you can see, it's a HOLE different topic.

Ha ha.

Thanks for stopping by!

David/:0)