Animals

A flock of wild parrots hang out most often in the area near El Camino Ave and Mathilda Ave, in Sunnyvale, where Matilda turns into Saratoga-Sunnyvale Road.  At various times and, particularly, towards the end of the day, they congregate in Los Palmas Park, just a few blocks away. A cluster of palm trees in the park provide a safe …

The quintessential early bird, American Robins are common sights on lawns across North America, where you often see them tugging earthworms out of the ground. Robins are popular birds for their warm orange breast, cheery song, and early appearance at the end of winter. Though they’re familiar town and city birds, American Robins are at home in wilder areas, too, …

A handsome chickadee that matches the rich brown bark of the coastal trees it lives among, the Chestnut-backed Chickadee is the species to look for up and down the West Coast and in the Pacific Northwest. Active, sociable, and noisy as any chickadee, you’ll find these birds at the heart of foraging flocks moving through tall conifers with titmice, nuthatches, …

Visiting my Sunnyvale garden are a variety of bees: Honey bees, small Mason bees, and big fat Bumble bees (that turn out to be Carpenter bees). Then, this fine early March day, I spot an enormous yellow bumble bee in the air around one of our apricot trees. It hovers near the blossoms,  but meanders in three dimensions, never once …

A relatively-rare visitor to the Sunnyvale garden is the red-tailed hawk. The red-tailed hawk (Buteo jamaicensis) is a bird of prey. In my garden, it tries to feed on doves and finches. One moment, your seed-feeder has attracted a lot of birds. Suddenly they all take off. Next moment is the swoosh of the hawk.

Mourning Doves are a wonderful visitor to your garden. The males sing the distinctive song. The doves tend to mate for life. I have seen the young doves fed from the crops of the parents. The doves are very sloppy nest builders: A few sticks; a few inches; eh, fine enough.

tbd

In our Sunnyvale garden, there is always one, and only one, dominant male hummingbird. He tries to keep every other hummingbird away from the feeder with one exception: During breeding season, the male allows some females to feed. tbd

One of the common visitors to our Sunnyvale garden is Bombus vosnesenskii, the yellow-faced bumblebee: A species of bumblebee native to the west coast of North America. It is the most abundant species of bee in this range and can be found in both urban and agricultural areas. Additionally, B. vosnesenskii is utilized as an important pollinator in commercial agriculture, …

Ladybugs and Ladybug larvae are beneficial insects for your garden because they eat aphids. Ladybugs are known by several other names: lady beetles, ladybug beetles, and ladybird beetles. Regardless of what you call them, these beetles belong to the family Coccinellidae. All ladybugs progress through a four-stage life cycle known as complete metamorphosis. Embryonic Stage (Eggs) The ladybug life cycle …