My Garden Mascot
My gardens attract a lot of flying insects, particularly small butterflies and dragonflies. They seem very attached to my yarrow and salvia plants. Here are some pictures.
Garden Mascot
Candidates - 2004
Official Garden Mascot of
2002
Garden Mascot Candidates for 2004
Really Li'l Grasshopper
While I was taking some quick pictures of the garden in late June, I spotted this mini-hopper. Just after I took this shot, it scooted into the greenery and started munching on some coneflower leaves.
Garden Mascot of 2003
The Winner: Li'l Grasshopper
)
)
This small grasshopper likes to perch on the yarrow. I find it there every couple of days. It's very tolerant of my attempts to photograph it. (Click to see enlarged view)
)
The 'hopper gives me the "talk to the hand" motion. It then crawled under the yarrow buds in a typical diva move. My photo shoot was over. (Click to see enlarged view)
Camouflaged Dragonfly
On June 12th, I spotted my first dragonflies of the season. Three of these camouflaged beauties amused themselves while I was weeding my garden. These foxy jets fly all over my gardens, buzz my lawn tractor, and generally poke harmlessly at my hat. As with the Official Garden Mascot of 2002, the dragonflies love the catmint. They even touch down in the same spot as last year's winner.
Big Green (Dragonfly)
These big green dragonflies seem are prodigious breeders. My back yard is full of them! They usually fly around me while I'm working on the garden and sometimes they stay long enough for me to get a picture.
The Black Cloud (Common Grackle)
Once upon a time, a nice black bird roosted next to me while I was working on my garden. It had shiny yellow eyes and a quack-like call. It did not seem overly concerned with my presence; it sucked dew off the grass and watched me. I looked it up in my bird watcher's guide book and saw that it was a common grackle (see this site for a better description).
This summer, I began to notice larger numbers of grackles. Their quarrelsome quacking starts with the sunrise and continues through the afternoon. I found two grackle nests in the trees around my house. By late summer, there were hundreds of them!
They descend on my lawn every morning, sucking the dew and eating any stray bits that catch their yellow eyes. They fight for control of the bird feeder, though they aren't able to eat much before the next bird pecks them out of the way. This must be what it's like when the frat boys descend on Fort Lauderdale.
Other than the black cloud caused by their flocks and the constant quacking, they're pretty harmless. I took a few snaps of them from my bay window. There were about fifty of them on my front lawn (scattering only when noisy cars drove by) and over a hundred more on my back lawn.
Official Garden Mascot of 2002
For the summer of 2002, the official mascot of my garden is this persistent, green dragonfly. It flits around the garden for hours when I'm working. It seems entranced by the catmint, rarely venturing more than a foot away.
The Hitchhiker - 2002
I was working on the garden one afternoon and, when I came inside, I found a hitchhiker on my Panama hat.
At first, I thought it had died from the heat and melted into my hat.
Then it started "vogue"-ing for the camera.
Tiring of me, it showed me its beautiful wings and took off for the garden.
This document maintained by
james@kiso.com.
Material Copyright
© 2003 James Kiso