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Favorite Creatures

Favorite Creatures

Fairy Shrimp

white-lined sphinx moth, Hiles lineata

A praying mantis stayed for an entire month

American bushtits

A bobcat (Lynx rufus) Frequently visits our pond in the Children’s Woodland.

The two great horned owls who lived in the ficus tree. We’d watch them take off every night at dusk and then we would come back to make sure they had safely returned each morning.

All the native bees for the win

LA Native Plant Source

Spotted towhee

Even though they are kind of vicious (eating eggs and nestlings!), the scrub jays are so smart. I also feel quite close to the redtail hawk couple that monitors our area.

Toltec scoliid wasp

Male valley carpenter bee aka the golden snitch (Xylocopa sonorina)

Audubon warblers, ruby- crowned kinglets, and native bees

That has to be our pup who loves playing on the chemical-free meadows and hiding in the blooms.

Lizards, hummingbirds (and any of the other bevy of birds, bees and butterflies that visit!)

Black-headed grosbeak, it’s such a beautiful bird

A male and female pair of western orioles.

A neighborhood two- year-old toddler takes delight walking up the path into the garden with his grandfather and splashing the water in the fountain.

Praying mantis, hummingbirds, a plethora of bees

Scott Logan, our naturalist. He visits frequently both day and night and provides

Baja chorus frogs (Pseudacris hypochondriaca)

Great blue heron (Ardea herodias)

How to choose? Most recently, a pair of owls calling to each other in the evenings as we’re reading after dinner. They nest in Woodlawn Cemetery where the Eternal Meadow is a generous native plant garden.

Bright green white-lined sphynx moth caterpillars

The alligator lizard is a real thrill because you never know when you are going to run into him/her/them. Also it was a thrill to discover the ugliest larvae ever was that of a swallowtail. Thank goodness I didn’t destroy it out of fear.

Not a single creature but every fall the migratory warblers, finches, and sparrows return to the food, water, shelter, and nesting materials and cover that our garden provides.

We have so many! The western burrowing owl, Blainville’s horned lizard, the California legless lizard, the El Segundo blue butterfly, and the loggerhead shrike to name a few.

Hummingbirds are regular visitors and always a treat to see.

The neighbors’ cat really loves to hunt between the tall sages, but the dependable return of gulf fritillary and sand wasps marks the changing of the seasons in a very poignant way.