One of the interesting aspects of gardening is running across (or away from) various critters and things in or around the garden beds.
Click the thumb nail picture for a larger image.
I was letting the dogs out about 6:00 am one cool dewy morning and I noticed what I thought was a dead leaf wrapped up with the pods on ALWAYS AFTERNOON. You can imagine my surprise when on closer inspection I saw this little guy all curled up amongst the pods. I'm not sure what species this guy is but he waited for me to get my camera to snap a few pics.
We do get a lot of tree frogs here and I find many sitting in blooms at any time of day. Probably a good spot to grab incoming bugs for a snack. This guy is nestled between two blooms of STILL NIGHT.
This little guy was just sitting on the petal of this seedling. We often have them stuck to our windows at night where they feast on the bugs attracted by the interior lights. We actually have to be careful about cranking closed our windows as these little guys are frequently hiding along the edges.
Another tree frog hiding between the blooms on a seedling.
This little guy sat on this leaf for several hours and was still there every time I came back. He was about 2" in overall length.
And another frog picture.
I came home from work one day and let the dogs out in our fenced backyard. While watching the dogs sniff around for a bit I was shocked to see a snapping turtle trying to get out of the backyard! One of the dogs finally noticed the visitor and I quickly got them back into the house. I donned some leather gloves, grabbed him near the back end of the shell and carried him to the edge of the woods on the front of the property. He was not too pleased with me and clawed like crazy but was unable to get his mouth around to where my hands were. It must have weighed close to 20 lbs (just under 10 kilos for those of you who are younger than me!).
The only way this turtle could have entered the backyard is by coming down the hill behind the house and presumably fell off one of the boulders that edge the yard at the base of the hill. (See the pictures of the backyard to see what I'm talking about). I have no idea what he was doing in the area. We have no water on our property and there is no water up the hill either. He must have travelled quite a ways as we are about half a kilometer or so from the nearest ponds. In the country you expect to see some different wildlife but this was totally unexpected!
Saw this guy hiding his head like this one morning. Funny thing was the next morning he was in exactly the same location but the flower was mush and you could see him entirely.
It's not a lily pad but it was the best I could do in this neighbourhood.