I'm finally certified

This Saturday I spent the entire day in my yard. I have spent the last few years turning my yard into a native landscape and wildlife haven. Jenn got me into the native gardening and wildlife thing several years ago and each year the yard gets better. I believe that in 3 years that the yard will be awesome because by that time the bushes should be grown up giving alot of cover. For Xmas Jenn applied for certification for my yard as "Certified Wildlife Habitat" by the National Wildlife Federation, the sign came a little late but the weather is finally good enough to put it up in the yard.

This weekend I got another "lifer" in my own yard, this time not a bird but a reptile, I was very excited to get my first snake in the yard. While turning over my compost in the compost pile I noticed all the large earthworms that were in there, I then noticed while I had my hands right in the pile a snake moving through the litter, it was a northern red bellied snake. I was super excited and then went straight inside to MDC's website to ID the snake, it took me a few minutes to find the correct ID, but after looking at several other sites' pictures, the habitat descriptions I figured it out. This past weekend in Little Rock Arkansas my friend showed me a snake that he had killed with a hoe a week before in his flower bed, in addition to this he told me his neighbors kill alot of snakes in the creek behind his house. This bothered me because 99% of all snakes that would be in a residential area are not poisonious and are only eating rodents, bugs or worms. Please don't needlessly kill these creatures, they are a part of a natual ecosystem that was here thousands of years before your foundation was poured.

After mowing the yard and checking out all my plants & bushes I tilled my garden after laying down 500 lbs of manure. I then planted my broccoli plants, carrots, red onions, white onions & finally spinach; the remainder of the garden (tomatoes, peppers, zuccini & squash will come aftert the threat of frost is gone).

Another great surprise was I found that a pair of cardinals were nesting in the evergreen off the corner of my deck right by the railing (the picture below shows the nest do you see it?). This was exciting because last year a pair nested on the other corner but was depradated by a damn cat and all her eggs were broken. I assumed that she was killed because she was always on the nest and feathers were all over the ground. Hopefully it is the same girl and she is giving the yard another chace. Each year we have had a pair of robins, a pair of barn swallows, a pair of house finches and a pair of house wrens nesting in the yard (we had a pair of blue birds one year but the house wrens depradated their nest). Not bad for a crappy yard that started as a cow pasture. I get so much enjoyment in the wildlife that is in my yard, if more pe0ple would give up on the exotic non-wildlife friendly gardening & landscaping I think they would find 10 times the enjoyment from the wildlife than they do the "pretty" landscaping that they have planted.