garden flowers 2

Butterflies are such wonderful creatures... affirmative in their beauty, not shy at all. It was very easy to take a lot of close pictures of him. He likes particularly our lemon tree and often hangs there.

garden flowers

Hi everyone! Spring is here with all these beautiful flowers, colors, smells... Here are some usual and less usual flowers from the garden. More are coming!

hummingbird nest video

Birth of a bird.

humming bird eggs

just hatched

a week later

A hummingbird decided to make its nest on a laurel tree next to our house. It settled 2 tiny eggs. Several days after we saw the nest, two babies birds hatched. They were so small ! Their mother came regulary to sit on them and keep them warm. They grew stronger and bigger, as humming bird babies could do. Then one day one of the fleglings disappeared. I think that they moved too much kicking each other and he fell from the nest. The mother continued to come and stay with the one baby that left. He continued growing, his beak became longer and his feathers prettier. But about a week later the second baby was gone. I didn't check up for few days and when I returned the nest was empty. Several days later the nest itself was gone and there is nothing left of it now .
I hope that the second baby is fine and he flew away because he grew up.

Last word about ground squirrels.

I was asked questions about these animals. If these were prairie dogs or marmots or something else. True, there is not much information about ground squirrels in books, even in my favorite encyclopedia of animals. So here are some basic facts. The latin name for california ground squirrels is Otospermophilus beecheyi, they are from the same family as marmots, prairie dogs, chipmunks and tree squirrels, but belong to another genus.Their closest relatives are other ground squirrels, like colombian, rock, unita ground squirrels. They live in plains and hills along the west coast from Washington state to Mexico. They are grey with very soft fur (touched in a local museum, I would't recommend verifying it on a live animal, as they have sharp teeth too!), their tail is long but a little less fluffy than a tree squirrel one.

They are bigger and heavier than tree squirrels and not as agile as the last ones. They live underground in burrows. They eat most of the day; it is their main occupation. Even when they take a rest under the sun, they find a piece of bark or a leaf to chew. Their favorite food is nuts and seeds but they are not picky, they would eat most of the plants and some insects . If a plant is not edible for them in mature state, they look for young leaves, shots and sprouts. They are always ready to try something new; there were incidents with poisonous mushrooms and lillies of the valley in the garden. Ground squirrels are destructive, they will eat younger parts of plants preventing their growth. If this doesn't stop you and you nevertheless want a couple of these in your garden, here are some plants that they don't like: rosemary, laurel, garlic, bouganvillia, lemons. When they are not eating they like to take sun and dust bathing, clean themselves, they like to dig too. They dig for three reasons: to make a burrow, to hide some food or find someone else's food. Sometimes they stand or sit on their rear paws. They like to look around and sometimes vocalize, making sharp repetitive noises. I think that they communicate this way, because they do it systematically and with no apparent relation to danger. When they are scared or attacked, they make a specific cry, which is louder and longer than the usual "communication". It would depend on type of danger, if it is close or far, they also react differently to a presence of a bobcat and a coyote or a falcon. They are territorial and will chase a rival from their place. I saw sometimes a ground squirrel hide in a neighbor burrow. Because there was danger they allowed the intruder to stay after some fighting.

That's all!

ground squirrel video

Ground squirrels vs predator

We have ground squirrels in our backyard. Thay are not as cute as normal squirrels. Besides they are stubborn and can eat almost everything in your garden. I don't care much since we rent the place but I don't like them for gnawing the bark of a lemon tree (quel sacrilege !) and destroying the grass and other ground covers that I try to grow. They also carry parasites and diseases. True pests! But the babies are so cute! Have a look yourself!

3 ground squirrel babies with mom

it is my favourite picture, oh so cute!

ground squirrel siblings

cute little ground squirrel

They have many predators (though not enough to control their population). One of them is a rattlesnake. The adult squirrels are immune to the bites and are not much afraid of rattlesnakes. They are mostly after the small ones. Since there are a lot of babies around now, it was not a surprise for me to find a rattlesnake in the garden. I knew it at once that there was a snake when I saw two flagtailing adult squirrels behind the house. It is a common behavior to scare a snake away. It consists of pointing at a snake, much like hunting dogs do, and bit their tailes, like angry cats. Sorry, the picture is blurred, I could't come closer without scaring them away. You may hint the snake in the bush. It is the same one at the other picture. It is quite reassuring to know that a mean reptile will not sneak in the garden without been seen!


rattlesnake