Build it and they will come.
Shifting our focus as gardeners from what looks pretty to us to how we can support the most thriving biodiversity will change your whole perspective on life! I am continually astonished how certain plants will suddenly attract an insect I have never seen before but somehow they’ve always been around, waiting for the right habitat to be nourished for them.
I encourage you to keep track of the wildlife friends you meet in your garden as your habitat grows. A patch of lifeless lawn can be alive and buzzing with energy palpable from many feet away in just one or two years! You can follow along with the species I have identified on my iNaturalist page. I highly recommend this program, it is the best social media on the internet by far.
ejean22's Profile · iNaturalist
When you stop and take a close look you’ll start noticing that what has always seemed like a busy bunch of buzzing bees is actually an incredibly diverse living system. In fact, many critters that look like bees are not honey bees at all! We have an incredible diversity of native solitary bees, bumble bees and non-bees that mimic bees. Syrphid flies look just like flies until you notice they have fly eyes and fly wings. Several beetle species have bright yellow and black stripes that trick the eye from far off. We’ve even seen moths that look exactly like wasps! And they are not all there to gather pollen and drink nectar, have you heard of a bee wolf? I never had until I tried to figure out what a certain bee was by posting on iNaturalist and a community of citizen scientists jumped in to help me with the ID.
Here are some photos of interesting wildlife from habitat gardens that I manage in East Vancouver and Camas. I welcome your questions.
A Few Friends with Wings
Western Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly
Anna’s Hummingbird in freezing weather drinking from a feeder I keep thawed by my back door.
Painted Lady Butterfly visiting some catmint.
Oregon Dark Eyed Junco eggs. They are ground nesters so it’s important to have good habitat that is not accessible by racoons or cats and won’t be mowed or stepped on.
Oregon Dark Eyed Junco babies, doing very well with very busy and attentive parents.
I was delighted when these Cedar Waxwings visited my ripening Osoberries for a snack.
What’s That Bug?
This amazing looking beetle is a Locust Borer. I had never seen one until I had a good population of goldenrod and now they show up even before the buds open, crawling on them impatiently waiting for the lunch buffet to open! They have an interesting host-specific life cycle, they must lay their eggs on black locust trees, then the larvae eat until they pupate into adult beetles which must eat pollen from goldenrod species before the cycle begins again. Black locust trees are invasive and these beetles do not harm native species, they are just another fascinating garden friend to watch for!
An elegant damselfly sunning itself on a coneflower blossom in my yard. Damselflies love to eat bugs like mosquitoes but also feed on pollen thus assisting in pollination. If you don’t know how damselflies and dragonflies spend their first couple years of life go look it up right now!
It’s hard to convey a sense of size in a close-up photograph but this is a very tiny leafhopper. Looking closely and you get to see it’s beautiful pattern.
A wasp is so often not a wasp. I have been continually amazed as I learn how many bee and wasp mimics are buzzing around without us even noticing. Look closely and you’ll see this wasp is not a wasp at all but a gorgeous moth that needs a new name.
A skipper butterfly is always a cheerful sight.
The grand shape of a galaxy encapsulated in a garden millipede.
