I had a nice time in the garden today with the company of a few visitors as I worked…

The Oriental garden lizards make me laugh because they find the most interesting places to sun themselves!

The female sunbird searching for nectar among the heliconia flowers.

The male sunbird with his bold black bib.

Remember the baby dove I discovered last New Year’s day? Here it is, all grown up!

Uncommon visitors in our garden, some pigeons dropped by after the rain stopped in the afternoon.

A brown grasshopper decided to munch on the Chinese kale. I decided it needed to go away…

It makes me happy to see the growing diversity of creatures in our garden because it means our garden is a place that attracts them. Of course, I’m not thrilled about the grasshoppers (I saw a bigger one, too) or the pigeons (for health reasons), but grasshoppers are food for birds, so I will accept them as long as they don’t ravage our plants; the pigeons will be discouraged from staying. As I discovered, they didn’t like being photographed – or maybe they thought I was going to do a different kind of shooting – and they flew off.

I haven’t been able to get photos yet, but it looks like secret squirrel has friends or family that it’s introducing to the neighbourhood! I really hope they don’t become a nuisance to those of us who are growing edibles for our families, but I’m sure we’ll find a way to co-exist.

And if you want to look back at the speckled dove when we first found it, go here.

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