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Butterfly and I are still pruning and clipping and hacking down everything in sight.  It’s an endless job, it seems, but since we’re having sunny days we’re taking advantage of them.  If Butterfly would stop collecting seeds and planting every one of them, it would help make less of a job.  If Butterfly would stop nursing every volunteer seedling, it would also help.  But Butterfly never met a baby plant she didn’t like and I doubt she’s going to change.

It seems the wildlife like the crepe myrtles for setting up housekeeping.

preying mantis egg sac

I wanted to prune this branch away, but since praying mantes are valued members of our gardens, I was very careful not to disturb this egg sac.  We watch very carefully for these, because you just never know where Mama Mantis is going to decide where to build her home.

One year my neighbor left her wooden clothes drying rack outside and unbeknownst to her, Mama Mantis stuck her egg sac to it.  I got a frantic phone call when there were tiny green baby mantes all over her drying clothes, right next to their woodstove, in the dead of winter.  I had no idea how to save them.  I’m known as the neighborhood Rescuer of All Things, but that time I failed miserably.  The warmth in the house had caused them to hatch, but there was nothing to eat.  It still makes me sad to think about it.

It’s not just the insects that like these trees and bushes. 

Have I mentioned that we have more hummingbirds than you can shake a stick at?  I fed them for 20 years, but finally, in an effort to simplify my life, stopped.  Our deck, with 3 huge feeders up, was busier than O’Hare International Airport at all times.  I was going through 3 quarts of food a day, and worrying about when feeders would run dry, if I would be home at the right time to fill them, blah blah blah.  I finally decided that I would no longer be a slave to the little devils. My neighbor, on the adjoining 20-acre parcel, continues to feed them.

It hasn’t seemed to cut down on the population one bit.  They are still frequenting the bird baths regularly and my neighbor is carrying on the same crazy ritual.  Occasionally they hover at my kitchen window, trying to tell me I’ve forgotten something, but I just wave my hand at them and tell them to go next door.

We only have a few that spend the winter and even though this is sunny California, when it’s below freezing in the morning, I always wonder what the poor little hummers are doing.  As soon as the sun is up though, I hear them zipping around and see them in the yard. 

This time of year, I get to actually see where some of them set up housekeeping.  Guess where?  In the crepe myrtles!

hummingbird nest

so tiny

This nest is in a hard-to-spot location and we never would see it when the tree is leafed-out.  And no, I don’t decorate the plants in the yard with clothespins.  I put that there to give you an idea of just how small a hummingbird nest is.

next to Butterfly's hair clip

This one, though, is in a younger tree right next to a path.  The nest is in the lowest fork of the tree and I can’t believe that until we started pruning none of us ever notice it.  The tree lost its leaves long ago – we should have seen it!  We probably should have noticed bird activity even when there were leaves on the tree.  I’m going to keep an eye on it and see if it gets re-used in spring.

The interesting thing about the nests was that the main building material was hair from our horses’ manes and tails.  There were some twigs and leaves, but the hair was wound around and around, and packed tightly.  Looks like a lot of work to me.

Wouldn’t it be fun to watch them build one of these?  And which one of the pair does the building?  And how do they even manage to build it with that long beak and tiny feet?

Pruning has become something of a treasure hunt.  Maybe I’m glad Butterfly can’t resist planting.