Snakes, Hummingbird Moths and other Creatures
Posted By shirley on January 18, 2010
While working around my 1/2 acre or so of garden, I’ve come across a lot of unique and awesome little creatures. At first I was so excited that I forgot to take pictures. Eventually, I got my wits together, I remembered to grab my camera and I got some good shots.
Snakes:
We’ve had several snakes show up – mostly garter snakes. This one surprised me while I was weeding around the ice plants.
Garter Snake
This is also a garter snake, I believe, just a different type. It also surprised me while I was weeding!
Young Garter Snake
I also found a ring-necked snake in my bedroom, which apparently slithered in from the garden. I don’t have any pictures of this because I panicked, thinking it was going to crawl under my bed and I wouldn’t find it until the dark of night or worse, in my bed! When my daughter assisted me in getting it out of the bedroom, it coiled its orange tail which is its way of scaring off predators and it sure worked on us. Scary!
A bird or a moth?
One day I was sitting on the patio enjoying watching the many hummingbirds (ah, the advantage of living in the country) flit around my California fuchsias and sages. Then I noticed this strange-looking bird (or so I thought it was) that seemed to be the same shape as a hummingbird with the same mannerisms of flitting around the flowers and poking a “beak” into the stamens. ”Wait a minute,” I thought, “is that a beak or a proboscis? Is it a moth!??!!! As I looked closer it sure did seem to have more of a body of a moth than a hummingbird.
Off I went to the computer and searched for hummingbird moth and sure enough there is such an insect and that is exactly what it is called. I was so excited, I forgot to take a picture.
Hawks
I have a large window in my kitchen that allows me to sit and look out the window at the garden and surrounding vicinity. A few times I have seen a hawk fly right by and even once had a snake in its claws. One time I was sitting with my husband and we both saw this hawk which seemed to have a mouse or gopher in its claws. It went into the oak tree where it promptly began dining on its catch. It was awesome. I got these pictures! So much fun watching nature.
Red Tailed hawk with mouse
Red-Tailed hawk eating
We can hear an owl near our home at sunset and we see hawks. We hope these raptors will start feeding on the baby bunnies who make our efforts at vegetable gardening a challenge.
Owls are the best raptors to have around your home. A whole family of owls can really take out your rodent population. However, hawks are territorial and eat only once a day. They will kill any other raptor in their area. They have become a problem for owls and other birds of prey.