Visitors to our garden ......
For a small garden, it is just amazing just how many visitors we have on a daily/nightly basis ..... :-)
Yes, we do have lots and lots of visitors to our little space, not just the two-legged variety but also huge number of the 4, 6, 8 and multiple-legged ones as well as the winged ones :-) Indeed our garden is THE resort for the many creatures, big and small, taking a respite in the cool, shady and food-laden oasis that is our garden in the sea of concrete surrounding us.
Most of the houses around us have more concrete than garden-space and mostly potted plants at that! It is really sad that most of them seems to think that gardens are a hassle and full of nasty creepy-crawlies and, to my chagrin, the primary source of mosquitoes!
At one residents' meeting many many years ago, we pointed out that within our garden, we do not have pools of still water for mosquitoes to breed whereas the other residents' unused containers and pot plants have pools of water in which the mosquitoes are breeding like crazy. The then-Chairman of the RC who maintained a large flower garden (all potted plants) at the other end of my street backed me up and said that he did not use any clay pot stands for his potted plants because of the mosquito problem. He also said that most of the residents used these pot stands and do not bother to empty the water in these stands on a daily basis - hence allowing the mosquitoes to breed in them. Since then our garden had not been an issue!
Back to our visitors ... we have a group of some dozen squirrels that nested nearby but make regular visits to our garden for food and water. We have seen generations of these squirrels come and go ... it really is good to see then bring their babies!
A couple of well-hidden bird nests in the tall bushes at the back of the garden have seen multiple generations of yellow-chested birds bringing up their families. There is nothing more amazing than to see the parent birds trying to distract us and lure us away from their nests as we approach their hidden nests!
The tiny moles (size of mice) are another group of visitors - though the numbers, sadly, have decreased tremendously over the years. I love to see them running around in the garden with their long bodies and short legs and used to see many of them every day. Now we see only the occasional ones scuttling around. The reduction in their number is obviously due to two neighbours who moved in some time back - one keeps far more cats that she should and other feed all the stray cats in the neighbourhood! :-O
There is also a family of civet cats that appeared regularly at night and one time I had the fright of my life when I looked up into the mango tree and saw a pair of bright eyes staring at me! Since then we studiously avoid crossing each other paths!
As we have mangoes and cikus in our garden, there are also the nightly winged visitors - bats, large and small. Then there are the occasional mice and rats and the frequent visitors like the domestic and stray cats ..... sigh :-(
Yes, we do have a lot of visitors indeed!
Most of the houses around us have more concrete than garden-space and mostly potted plants at that! It is really sad that most of them seems to think that gardens are a hassle and full of nasty creepy-crawlies and, to my chagrin, the primary source of mosquitoes!
At one residents' meeting many many years ago, we pointed out that within our garden, we do not have pools of still water for mosquitoes to breed whereas the other residents' unused containers and pot plants have pools of water in which the mosquitoes are breeding like crazy. The then-Chairman of the RC who maintained a large flower garden (all potted plants) at the other end of my street backed me up and said that he did not use any clay pot stands for his potted plants because of the mosquito problem. He also said that most of the residents used these pot stands and do not bother to empty the water in these stands on a daily basis - hence allowing the mosquitoes to breed in them. Since then our garden had not been an issue!
Back to our visitors ... we have a group of some dozen squirrels that nested nearby but make regular visits to our garden for food and water. We have seen generations of these squirrels come and go ... it really is good to see then bring their babies!
A couple of well-hidden bird nests in the tall bushes at the back of the garden have seen multiple generations of yellow-chested birds bringing up their families. There is nothing more amazing than to see the parent birds trying to distract us and lure us away from their nests as we approach their hidden nests!
The tiny moles (size of mice) are another group of visitors - though the numbers, sadly, have decreased tremendously over the years. I love to see them running around in the garden with their long bodies and short legs and used to see many of them every day. Now we see only the occasional ones scuttling around. The reduction in their number is obviously due to two neighbours who moved in some time back - one keeps far more cats that she should and other feed all the stray cats in the neighbourhood! :-O
There is also a family of civet cats that appeared regularly at night and one time I had the fright of my life when I looked up into the mango tree and saw a pair of bright eyes staring at me! Since then we studiously avoid crossing each other paths!
As we have mangoes and cikus in our garden, there are also the nightly winged visitors - bats, large and small. Then there are the occasional mice and rats and the frequent visitors like the domestic and stray cats ..... sigh :-(
Yes, we do have a lot of visitors indeed!
posted by East-West @ 1:56 PM
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