The Garden is Never a Lonely Place

In late October 2018, after arriving back in Arivaca from the Pacific Northwest, I was quite dismayed at the lack of birds and other wildlife visitors in my garden.  Though I guessed that it was because of the plentiful food and water all over the valley due to the late monsoon season, I fretted that my “friends” might have all found other homes while I was gone, and the garden seemed so lonely.  Then my perspective began to change…

Gila Woodpecker

One day while out weeding the garden, two Gila Woodpeckers came calling, swooping from tree to tree until they found what they were looking for: my Jujube tree!  Though this tree is native to Southern Asia and Africa, it grows very well here in Arivaca, and bears plum-sized fruits that are delicious fresh or dried, and high in vitamins and immune system boosters. Because Jujube trees also have very long, sharp thorns, the woodpeckers started snapping the fruits off by their stems on the very top branches that I couldn’t reach with my ladder, and then flying over to the nearby Mesquite for their lunch.  Quite ingenious!  They also managed to drop quite a few Jujube fruits on the ground around the base of the tree, and I made a mental note to come over with a basket to pick up the ones that were still good after I finished my weeding. 

Grey Fox

But that mental note flew away in the breeze so to speak…  until late that night, when I saw one of my cats with her nose “glued” to the window that looks out on the Jujube tree, and soon discovered the reason why: a Grey Fox had come into the yard and was eating each and every dropped fruit!  What a beautiful little animal, with its red chest and legs, and long fluffy tail.  I never knew that a fox would eat fruit, and I was happy that it found a delicious midnight snack under the Jujube tree by cleaning up all the woodpecker’s “leftovers”!

Canyon Tree Frog

A few days later, another happy surprise awaited me.  The patio fountain pump had stopped working, and as I began to take it apart to put in a new one, I discovered that the fountain and its base had become a tiny “home sweet home” for one of my favorite creatures on the planet: Tree Frogs!  There were two living in a hole in the rock base, two living under the fountain, and one living up on a ledge inside the fountain.  I’m sure they’ve been finding plenty of insects to dine on in all these places, and now that a new pump has been (carefully) installed, there is plenty of fresh water available again.  

The number of bird and butterfly visitors in the garden gradually began to increase during fall, with many “old friends” back in town again... yet both of these wonderful wildlife surprises had already helped me understand that the garden is never a lonely place.

Grey Fox kit

Postscript: Gila Woodpeckers live in our garden year-round, but we don't see the Grey Foxes very often except every fall when the Jujube fruits are ripe.   During that time, the adults visit every night to feast on the fallen fruit and leave behind piles of scat nearby to mark their territory, and sometimes groups of kits come to sample it and frolic around, just having fox fun.  I might be all through with the idea of picking Jujubes for my own snacks, just so there will always be enough for these wonderful wildlife to eat!  

Photo Credits:
Gila Woodpecker by Octoavio Telis, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
Grey Fox by James Marvin Phelps, Linnea, Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license
Canyon Tree Frog by Emily Bishton
Grey Fox kit by Calius, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.