A critter season like Where’s Waldo?
This summer I’m living a Where’s Waldo? book. Every time I step into the front yard I can count on a fawn and myself mutually scaring the bejeesus out of each other. I’ll obliviously walk by or close a car door or pull out the hose, not even seeing it, and the fawn will flush from hiding, noisily kicking up leaves and startling me in turn.
OK, this cutie stayed put this afternoon when I returned from the grocery store and started hauling bags out of the trunk. I happened to glance to my right, down the path to the stone steps — I probably felt eyes boring into my head — and hello!
She lay calmly as I took her picture from the driveway, her front hooves neatly tucked under her body. Honestly, I don’t recall seeing so many young fawns so late in July before, young enough that their mothers hide them while going off to browse.
Yesterday she (if the same one) lay hidden behind the big ‘Green Goblet’ agave, in a bed of soft woolly stemodia, partly screened by paleleaf yucca.
I happened to see her while getting the shovel out of the garage, and she held steady through my photo session from the island bed. But when I went to close the clanging garage door she’d had enough, leaping up and dashing across the sedge lawn, where she turned to see if I’d come after her.
No chance of that, baby. You ought to know me better by now.
One day I spotted another visitor. Hey, I’m pretty sure you weren’t invited for a swim! It’s a harmless black-necked garter snake, and I netted it out of the pool and set it loose by the back fence.
A rabbit has taken up residence under a mahonia shrub by the front door, and for a couple of weeks, every time I’d walk by, it would sprint out, making me jump. At first I thought it was cute, but then it showed up in the back garden and started nibbling all the fresh leaves off a newly planted ‘Soft Caress’ mahonia. That does it! I’ve been trying to block its entry points under the gates on both sides of the house, which I’d thought were critter-proof, but clearly not.
I’ll leave you with one more Where’s Waldo? Bambi. Do you see him?
__________________________
Digging Deeper
Come learn about gardening and design at Garden Spark! I organize in-person talks by inspiring designers, landscape architects, authors, and gardeners a few times a year in Austin. These are limited-attendance events that sell out quickly, so join the Garden Spark email list to be notified in advance; simply click this link and ask to be added. Season 8 kicks off in fall 2024. Stay tuned for more info!
All material © 2024 by Pam Penick for Digging. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.
We have had a plethora of critters this season – I’ve experienced this too and keep hearing similar reports across the country. In our area, the theory is that fewer cars on the road have meant more babies growing up to roam backyards. This year, squirrels, possums, raccoons and skunks are ho-hum. Now, we also have bunnies, peacocks (with pea hens, not a good sign!), and my new arch nemesis, the gopher. The coyotes have always shown up now and then but having a pair of them confronting raccoons at the fountain and meeting me at the back door at 9am is new!
A gopher — that strikes fear in my heart, Kris. I’m sorry for you! We don’t have gophers here, that I know of. But it does seem there’s always something that wants to eat up the garden.
Our fawns seem very late this year too. And last weekend I also saw my first cute little garter snake sunning on a concrete paver. I like to see the critters as evidence that my garden is supporting the larger world, but I’m very glad that – so far – that doesn’t include bunnies!
I like seeing wild creatures in my garden too, Jane. I just wish they didn’t all stay to dine. 😉
I’ve read estimates that there are ten times as many deer in the Texas hill Country now than there were when the Europeans first came. Since they adapt so well to urban living, it’s a wonder that you have any plants left at all.
It IS a wonder, but I do. And yes, there are SO many deer in older suburban neighborhoods, especially in northwest Austin. It’s not that our homes have displaced them, and that’s why they’re in our yards and streets. Just the opposite: we’ve created the perfect habitat for them with almost no predators.
All my critters have disappeared. I mean the six legged kind. Where are the bees? The butterflies? I see bees by the ones or twos, not the dozens I used to see. I do have an Eastern Tiger Swallowtail inhabiting my garden, but not the Ladies and Buckeyes and smaller fry. I do have doves, jays, and other little dinosaurs, but not many. Where is everybody?
I’m concerned about the lack of bees too, Peter. I noticed a couple of bumblebees recently in my garden, but there just aren’t as many bees as there should be. Of course I don’t have a lot of flowering plants at this time of year (or ever), but still. I do seem to have lots and lots of lizards though.
I think it is amazing that deer are so close to your house. That would unnerve me just for the fact that they are such voracious browsers. Rabbits! ugh is all I can say. Cute as they are they are monster munchers.
I’m starting to realize that about rabbits. As for the deer, they are thick in this part of Austin. I’ve filled my front garden with grasses and scented and fibrous plants that they don’t love. And I do enjoy seeing the fawns. But the bucks in fall rut, rubbing my plants to smithereens with their antlers, are what drive me bonkers. In fact it’ll be plant-caging time soon. Seems like it gets earlier every year.
The pictures are so cute! I wish a deer would visit my garden, I do have seen a rabbit and garter snakes. The rabbit visits frequently but have not touch any of my plants “yet”. Anyway, they are all welcome. Thank you for the pictures, I enjoy your articles very much.
Ooh, be careful what you wish for, Doris. 😉 But if you want to attract deer, just set out roses, azaleas, arborvitae, daylilies, or hostas. 🙂 Seriously though, thanks for your comment and for reading Digging!
Like Lisa, I’m surprised to see the deer so close to the house. But how lucky for us that they are — the photos are wonderful, particularly the last one.
Wasn’t he/she a cutie? I saw a fawn again this morning, trying to hide between ceramic spheres and a big agave. I don’t know why she doesn’t trust me yet. I’ve never even sprayed her with the hose, like I do my dog sometimes when he gets to barking. 😉
I’ve lived in Austin for 20 years and this summer is the first time I’ve ever seen rabbits here. We’ve had two sightings, one of them a large hare in a nature preserve (at least we decided it must be a hare). For us, it’s coyotes, yipping away behind the fence whenever sirens go past, which off East Riverside is often enough.
Isn’t it strange how animals will just show up out of nowhere? I’ve seen the occasional rabbit over the past several years, but this year much more often. And like you, we hear coyotes in the greenbelt behind our fence. I’ve not yet spotted one in my own front garden, but I’ve seen coyotes from time to time trotting through the neighborhood at night.