Wildlife is fortunately not too much of a problem within the landscapes here. Deer have complete access but strangely avoid refined landscapes, which includes roses. We would be unable to defend the landscapes otherwise. With so many people in the area, hunting is not possible. Even if it were, I do not like the local options much. Turkeys must know, which is why they are so blatant with their minor but annoying transgressions. Ducks at least try to be helpful by eating snails and the overwhelmingly prolific duckweed in their pond. Actually, I would not mind if they invited some of their friends over to help, since the pond looks more like a lush green lawn than water. Increasingly cooler weather may change that somewhat soon.

1. Single white angel’s trumpet is irrelevant to wildlife, but is blooming too splendidly to ignore. It was #6 last week, while beginning to bloom. It grew from a cutting last spring.

2. Ducks enjoy the pond without becoming too annoyingly numerous. Only this nice pair seems to be permanent residents. Another pair occasionally stops by but lives elsewhere.

3. Duckweed might otherwise be less bothersome if only they invited their friends over a bit more often. Even in this small pond, a single pair of ducks can not control duckweed.

4. Turkeys are the opposite. They are annoyingly numerous, but do not help much. They glean insects, but also thrash colorful flowers and berries, whether they eat them or not.

5. Pyracantha berries should remain colorful while small birds eat them through winter. Instead, turkeys shake most of them from their branches, and leave them on the ground.

6. Rhody is a terrier of some sort. His ancestors pursued burrowing animals who lived in the ground, or ‘terra’. Fortunately, he is uninterested, and is even less interested in fowl.

This is the link for Six on Saturday, for anyone else who would like to participate: https://thepropagatorblog.wordpress.com/2017/09/18/six-on-saturday-a-participant-guide/

11 thoughts on “Six on Saturday: No Hunting”

  1. Wild turkeys seem to come and go in phases here – see them every day for a few weeks, crossing the lawns in their stately way, pecking at bugs in the grass, and then they disappear for months. I like to watch them go by. And I’m not aware of any damage done to the gardens…

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    1. No one knows if they are native here. This region is supposedly within their natural range, but no one can remember them in the wild prior to about 2000. I suppose that animals, including turkeys, are more mobilized than vegetation, so can modify their ranges more readily. When they first arrived, they proliferated so efficiently that we thought that they would overpopulate. Then, their population seemed to reach an equilibrium. They are always out and about, except only for the first few days prior to Thanksgiving. No one knows where they go to at that time, but they are most definitely gone. They return on the day immediately after Thanksgiving. They have been doing this since they arrived.

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  2. You got a really nice shot of Rhody there! You are fortunate not to have major problems with wildlife. Mice and voles are a constant problem here, but we do have a fence keeping out deer. Apparently there are wild boar here too, but I have not seen one nearby yet.

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  3. I have never seen turkeys in my town, but where I work – they are brazen, holding up traffic, hogging the sidewalks. Ducks every once in a while – they usually don’t stay long, probably on their way to the marsh. Angel trumpet is lovely,

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    1. Where I lived in town, a pair of ducks from a nearby lake found a swimming pool within a neighboring condominium complex. A resident of the complex fed the pair, despite concern expressed by neighbors. Unfortunately, the original pair did what ducks do in water, and worst of all, a few days later, and very suddenly, they invited countless friends over for a major pool party!

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  5. We have large wild pheasants that love to run in front of cars. I can’t decide if that’s better or worse than the turkeys. For the pond, though, is it big enough to support a few goldfish? I know that my goldfish adore duckweed and we can’t feed it to them fast enough.

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    1. Turkeys cause more damage within gardens, are more likely to damage a car, and make more of a mess on the road. We put a few koi into the pond last year, but someone drained the pond last winter. Since then, I was informed that we can not put koi or goldfish into the pond.

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