One of the delights of gardening, at least for me, is to see the wildlife move in and enjoy my garden with me...We of course have the usual birds, rabbits, squirrels and butterflies...and while these are lovely and I will stop what I am doing to quietly watch them, the one animal we have on our property that thrills me no end is someone a little different and special...We only get to see her during the warmer months of the year, but just knowing she is here reminds me how truly blessed we are to share our property with her...
You might recognize this stand of trees from my post a few weeks ago where hubby was clearing up the branches and chipping them with into mulch...The reason we keep the grass area clear is because our little friend struggles in under growth and we want to make sure "her" part of the property is just how she needs it to be...Later today we will be planting her 2 more berry bushes as these are amongst her favorite food...
This photo was taken from standing on my front porch, which is why it is a little blurry...We are so lucky to be able to watch her come and go from her burrow without leaving the house...It is roughly 120 feet from our front door to hers...
Because she is listed on the Endangered Species List as a Threatened Species, we keep this area not just free of debris but also of foot traffic and when we do bring in livestock they will not have access to this area either...We try to do what we can to keep her on our property and protected so she will not venture out onto the road and get killed...
Here she is a Gopher Tortoise....She is about 12inches long making her fully grown...No idea how old she is but my guess would be no less than 20yrs old because of her size....They are surprisingly fast moving and it took me over a year to get a good up close photograph of her to share...If you would like to know more about why the Gopher Tortoise is so important to the ecosystem and other interesting facts you can visit this website http://www.gophertortoise.org/tortoise/facts.htm
Blessings Kelsie
Joining the following parties this week:
Wow Us Wednesday @ http://savvysouthernstyle.blogspot.com/
Outdoor Wednesday @ http://asoutherndaydreamer.blogspot.com/
Farm Friendly Friday @ http://www.verdefarm.com/
Wow Us Wednesday @ http://savvysouthernstyle.blogspot.com/
Outdoor Wednesday @ http://asoutherndaydreamer.blogspot.com/
Farm Friendly Friday @ http://www.verdefarm.com/
12 comments:
How neat is this?!
how fun!!! love her!
Oh how wonderful that you and your husband go out of your way to keep the habitat going for this lucky tortise. Thank you for that, and thank you for sharing.
Barb
Very cool...tortises are so special...the desert tortise is on the endangered list here. Thank you for protecting and showing her to us!
We would make good neighbors. We live on a lake and find both tortises and turtles in our back yard. Love them! They will come up close to the house to lay their eggs every year. Great post!
Wow! You have a great place with all that wildlife. My boys would have a hi ho time at your place!
How wonderful to get to see this beautiful creature and to help care for her.There was a turtle/tortoise? next door last week. My dogs were watching and barking through the fence. I think she was trying to get to the big ditch behind the neighbors across the street. I hope she made it.
You are so lucky to have such a lovely creature make her home near you. B
How interesting .Thanks for pictures! Cheri
How wonderful that you share your home with such a lovely lady!
That is soooo coool! Thank you for keeping her safe. Do you think someday she will have little baby tortises? Thanks for sharing!
wow that is so amazing. We have nothing like that in our neck of the woods. Thanks for sharing.
Caroline
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