Pretty Isn't Always Practical

This was the summer when Marty decided that it was time to get proactive and build a garden fence designed to keep out vegetable munching creatures.

Every year we oooh and ahhh as the plants begin to take off.  And, every year, we face disappointment when we find that despite having a fence, deer have managed to make their way into the garden and help themselves to the tasty leaves, leaving us grappling for ideas on how to keep the pesky creatures out.  And, of course, there are always a few rabbits who manage to somehow get inside as well.

It's hard to feel sorry for the deer when we live in an area surrounded by corn fields with ready snacks for the taking.  And believe me, there is always plenty of clover for bunnies to feed on.  But our varied greens must be very enticing and worth the extra effort because somehow they always manage to be devoured......and not by us!

So, this year, Marty decided that he was going to build the Fort Knox of gardens to keep them out.
I didn't want an eyesore, and after seeing so many beautiful gardens in Scotland, I kept throwing ideas at him until he found something that we could both agree on.

We thought that we'd try the heavy green plastic mesh fencing for a nicer look, and each of the posts is topped with a solar light to keep the deer from invading.

Those lights cast a beautiful glow at night, and seem to serve the same purpose as the aluminum pie plates but without the clanging noise every time the wind blows.  (I'm thinking my neighbors are thanking me for that!)

Then, just two weekends ago, he added the arbor to the doorway.

Pretty nice, don't you think?

The lettuce has begun to really take off and the sweet potatoes are happily spreading themselves, adding more and more beautiful shiny leaves to the stems as they creep along.  Zucchini is flourishing and we have more cucumbers than I would have ever imagined.  Two full months of uninterrupted harvest!

Then.......the inevitable happened. 

I went down to the garden to check for zucchini....... and spotted a bunny.......... inside.  

That certainly made me curious, as he managed to make his way out in a blink of an eye without my being able to determine the exit. After a quick search, I spotted several spots where a bunny could easily squeeze under the fence in the back, due to some heavy rains washing the soil down.  So, I placed several left over 2 x 4 pieces along the edge and was quite satisfied with my blockade attempt.

Unless those bunnies were weight lifters, or knew how to work as a team to move the wood, the quick fix would work until Marty had a chance to put in something more permanent.

Satisfied that my bunny issues were solved, we jumped in the car and headed out of town for the weekend.

I had just finished making blueberry buckle with my two grandchildren, who were patiently waiting for the timer to go off, and we were passing time while watching the hermit crabs enjoy a lettuce salad.

Actually, I'd never seen a hermit crab eat before, and Almond Milk's little arm kept moving as he munched away.  (He's the crab in the front...oh....and by the way, my grandson named them.  The guy in the back is Fred.)

But I digress.....

We were patiently waiting when my cell phone rang and a number popped up that was completely unfamiliar to me. 

I answered and let the woman on the other end speak.  She had a very thick Spanish accent, and I was certain that she had the wrong number and told her so.

I was just about ready to hang up when she said, "No, no, no NO!  Dees ees AGnuse, your naybor.!  (Translation:  This is Agnes, your neighbor) We see bunny in your garden.  Are you home?"

I apologized to Agnes for the error, and told her that I was out of town for the weekend, and told her that I had barricaded the entryways for the bunnies, but must have missed one.  Would she be so kind to let the bunny out?  She never really answered that question, but when we arrived home last evening, I immediately went down to the garden to see what was up.

We found pieces of wood in several places. In fact, it was obvious that Agnes had made quite the attempt to keep that bunny out of our garden.  

It appears that bunnies who can no longer squeeze under the board take matters into their own hands.

Or, should I say teeth?

Holes in the fencing were a clear indication that bunnies are quite resourceful, and obviously, have very sharp incisors for munching through plastic.

And the delectable treat appeared to be beet leaves.

The lettuce was untouched.

Marty placed more barricades around the holes until he could come up with a more permanent solution.

Today, I decided to go down to the garden to take some photos of the damage and, much to my surprise, when I got to the garden, there was a party going on.  I can't tell you how many bunnies were hiding under the zucchini leaves as some made a quick escape, but the largest of the group wasn't so lucky. 

I could tell that he was nervously attempting to locate his escape route.  And, when he headed to the gate, I couldn't help but feel sorry for him.

So, I told him that I would open the gate and walk away so that he could get out.  I'm fairly certain that my stalking neighbor heard this conversation, and he probably thinks I'm nuts, but, really, who cares?

Little bunny hopped out and dashed off like a streak of lightening towards the back neighbor's deck where I'm fairly certain the bunny nest is hidden.

When Marty came home this evening, he had a roll of 3 feet chicken wire that he wrapped around the outside of the fence.

So much for pretty.  Hopefully, it will serve the purpose.

In the meantime, Red was back, raiding the sunflowers.

Which is OK with me, because I never had any intention of eating those sunflower seeds.

Now, if I find him in the garden devouring my sweet potato leaves....that will be an entirely different story!

Bye Bye Bluebirds

If you recall, my last post described the invasion of ants into my hummingbird feeder, which I would have thought would be a food deterrent in the eyes of the beautiful fluttering creatures.  But, it turns out that my concern was for naught.  A friend of mine sent me a very interesting article that claimed that ants make great snacks for hummingbirds and bluebirds.   

But let's face it, a LOT of ants managed to sneak by both prior to their demise in the sugary pool.

So, I took matters into my own hands and stuck packaging tape, sticky side out, along a 12 inch section of the black pole that the ants used for transit from the deck.

It would figure that as soon as I finished with the tape, we experienced a deluge of rain for several hours.  I never went back out to check to see if the tape was still sticky after the rain.  But, since then, I haven't spotted one ant anywhere near the feeder, or the pole, for that matter.

The next morning, though, I spotted this beautiful creature drinking from the feeder.

Isn't he just gorgeous?

Little did I know, that this glimpse of mama bluebird would be one of my last.

Sometime over the last few days,  the baby bluebirds flew the coop.  That became quite obvious when this downy woodpecker came along to explore the house.

He actually had the nerve to enter and check out the place.  I knew that if there were babies still inside,  there was no way that daddy bluebird was going to let him anywhere near that house.

I was a bit disappointed, as I had hoped to have a glimpse of the family prior to departure, but once again the family had moved on without my seeing.  Oh well. 

I wasn't too disheartened as I found my attention quickly drawn to the back porch.

Look closely below and you can see the female goldfinch busily feeding on the seeds while the male looks on.

Soon, they took turns hopping back and forth between the flowers. digging out the tiny seeds. 

Of course, this excitement won't last long, as the flowers are shriveling up quickly.

I'm just glad that I was able to witness it first hand!

Ant Encroachment

Things have certainly been humming along this summer….

Aren't these creatures just gorgeous?  I can't help but smile when I see them fluttering outside the window.

But then…..THIS happened!

Large black ants decided to spoil my fun.

The only consolation that I have is that all of them died after ruining my sweet nectar for the birds.

In all my years of hanging hummingbird feeders, not once have I had such an ant attack occur.

And, to be quite frank, I can't think of one cute thing about an ant….unlike Sneaky Snacky Squirrel, who obviously wanted to raid the food supply, but was certainly an adorable looking creature.

Ants, on the other hand…..have absolutely no redeemable qualities in my mind.

So, I put some thought into just how I am going to foil future ant raids.  I ruled out the candy cane idea, which worked for Sneaky but seems to be more than an attractant than a deterrent for ants.

The Slinky idea, although quite successful in keeping Sneaky off of the feeders, seemed like just more of an opportunity for ants to make their way up the pole, although there might be the possibility that they would be dizzy by the time they got to the top.

Upon further investigation, I see that I have the option of making a moat in an attempt to drown the creatures prior to their reaching the food supply.  

Or, I could grease the pole with Vaseline, but that seems kind of a yucky idea to me.

I could hang a bay leaf, which I do have, but I'm not so convinced that a bay leaf will stay hanging long enough to deter ants.

I could try rubbing chalk on the pole.  Chalk is supposed to have some sort of quality that ants prefer not to cross, but that would require running outside and reapplying every time it rains.  Not something I'm quite enthusiastic about doing.

And, last but not least….there is the application of sticky tape.  Apparently the ants stick to it on the way up.  Do I want to look out and see ants in multitude?  Well, the pole is already black, so, perhaps it won't be that noticeable.

Or, better yet, perhaps a bird will think that the ant would make a nice snack, and spare me the ugliness of their demise.  

I think I'll give it a try.  Here's hoping!

Cuckoo?

Let me just say that things here have been pretty crazy.  I'm not going to divulge the reason behind that comment,  you'll just have to take my word for it.

So, when I glanced out the window on Monday, and spotted a huge bird with a yellow beak looking in my direction,  I became quite excited, thinking that it must be the bird that my friend, Morena had been telling me about just a few weeks ago, but for the life of me, I could not remember the name.

So, I called her up and asked her, and she informed me that it had been a Yellow Billed Cuckoo.  I'm fairly certain that my reaction was not quite what Morena had expected as I let out a laugh that probably caused some hearing damage in her listening ear.

But this woman knows me well, and she understood perfectly why, after the week I just had, I would think that a cuckoo bird would fit right in with my life.  She was excited to come over and I wasn't too surprised to see her arrive with her trusty bird book in hand.

The bird was nowhere to be seen when Morena arrived, so I showed her the photos that I had managed to capture earlier.

Unfortunately, the bird did not resemble anything in the bird book, and certainly did NOT look like the Yellow Billed Cuckoo.

When Marty arrived home from work that day, I mentioned the bird to him, and I noticed a commotion of some sort going on in the tree outside the dining room window.  I asked him what he thought it was.  Not one to miss an opportunity like this, he pulled out his binoculars.

He exclaimed that he thought that this was, indeed, a yellow billed cuckoo!

I know what you're thinking....you're thinking this is a robin.  But, I assure you that I do know what a robin looks like.

And, I must mention that when a Robin landed on the garden gate near the bird in question, the robin  was dwarfed in comparison.  The mystery bird is about twice as big.

While we were staring at it, attempting to figure out just what it was, rain began to fall,  and the bird decided to lift its wings to guard against the raindrops.  Marty commented that "my" bird was acting quite crazy and he couldn't understand why it would stay on the fence in the pouring rain and not seek shelter in a tree.

I mentioned that perhaps that was why the bird was called a cuckoo bird.  Because it acted cuckoo.

Marty found that answer to be quite reasonable and he agreed whole heartedly. 

As if all of this excitement wasn't enough for the day, yet another unusual bird showed up, dripping wet.

Actually, the best part of the above photo is the rabbit lurking in the background.  Not to worry....he's outside the fence, on the other side, although I did have a slight panic attack when I first spotted him through the camera lens, thinking he was going to be munching on the lettuce.

I wish I could give you a better update on cuckoo, but I haven't seen him around the last few days.  

But, I am quite happy to inform you that the nesting bluebirds continue to brighten my day.

And this guy even turned his head and posed for the photo!

How great is that?

In the meantime, I'll keep my eye out for the mystery bird, or you'll be thinking that I'm cuckoo!