I would so love to see a lightening bug. How wonderful to have them over your roses.

My boss has been getting nightly visits from 3 skunks, he has a desk in the garage he can smoke cigars at, they have taken to rub themselves on his ankles.....yikes

A family of skunks can be quite entertaining, as long as they are across the street! We stood at the front gate last fall watching about ten of them trotting down the other side of the street, checking under gates to determine access. Each time a car drove down the street, all of them spun around, tails in the air, tails facing the street in "defensive mode". They did look like a "ribbon", or even a well choreographed precision troupe. I laughed each time they spun around, threatening approaching traffic. Just one of MANY reasons my gates are screened to prevent their entry and my dogs escape. Kim

I miss lightening a bugs--haven't seen them in years. I'm enjoying the usual suspects--chickadees, finches, mourning doves, titmice, wrens and other assorted feathery friends. (I'm not enjoying the rats nor the squirrels as they cause my dog to go berserk with barking.)

Anne

We only have one rose in the yard- a 60-year-old, non-fragrant once-bloomer that looks like a 'Dorothy Perkins' type.

Here she is adorned with some sort of Hairstreak during her short blooming period.

I didn't realize folks didn't have lightening bugs :) I have so many, I see them sitting on plants in the daytime.

My newest visitor is a wild turkey. Those guys are huge! I may have scared him away walking too near him. We'll see.

This year's garden theme is Black Rat Snake, apparently, though. I've seen more of those than my usual chipmunks, etc. Woops. I love them, too, so it's cool with me really.

Except I got cornered on the toilet by an unfamiliar, brown-patterned small snake (stationed on my boot left by the wall in the bathroom)! Knowing we have copperheads on down in the woods, I proceeded to Red Alert. The terrifying thing didn't make it out alive, and then research showed he was just a baby Black Rat Snake. Poor little guy! OTOH, wildlife just shouldn't corner you on the toilet anyway, lol.

We had skunks in our kitchen in Washington state. When we enlarged the dining area we put the cat door well above the ground, with platforms indoors and out, so that the cats could jump up and pass through it but possums and skunks couldn't.
In the big garden lately I've been admiring a fine, fat hare, spotted more than once, though I don't know if it's always the same one. Once I saw it when it didn't see me, and I watched it hop leisurely up and away out of the garden. I do like hares. We don't seem to have rabbits here and just as well. My helper found a bird's nest on the ground a couple of days ago (this is what happens when you don't cut the grass in the beds all spring). I suspect it was a grouse nest, as one had flown away a couple of minutes before. Last year I found another ground nest, with a single large egg: that one I suspect was a pheasant. There are other animals in the garden, though I haven't seen them, only evidence of their activities: deer, boars, probably badgers. We've had wolves nearby but I haven't seen them myself, yet. Birds, though not in the variety I'd like. There are snakes, harmless ones, living under the terrace.

From :Skunk Hour" by Robert Lowell:

nobodyâÂÂs here--

only skunks, that search
in the moonlight for a bite to eat.
They march on their soles up Main Street:
white stripes, moonstruck eyesâ red fire
under the chalk-dry and spar spire
of the Trinitarian Church.

I stand on top
of our back steps and breathe the rich air--
a mother skunk with her column of kittens swills the garbage pail
She jabs her wedge-head in a cup
of sour cream, drops her ostrich tail,
and will not scare.

Lightning bugs are on the decline in a lot of places- possibly because they like leaf litter and don't like pesticides? We occasionally see one or two in our yard (we're okay with leaf litter and don't use pesticides, but our neighbors...?); I'd love to see more.

If I drive out away from the city/suburbs, I see more of them, but apparently not nearly as many as there used to be. Still, it is magical!

I haven't seen a skunk here in years, but we still have lightening bugs. We have a high bank by the creek covered in leaf litter. Some years, but not every year, it looks like a Disney light show there are so many of them.

Over here on the old continent we have fireflies as well. Pretty things: I remember them from my Florida childhood and then it seems that for a while they weren't there any more. I was charmed to find them again in Italy. I like for the most part our abundant bug population, all the ladybugs and wasps and bees, bumble and not, and butterflies. They suggest that our place is in fair shape as far as ecology goes. Not that we could ever keep the garden immaculate anyway, but there are abundant wild flowers and plant litter to keep the insects happy.
I'm enjoying these stories.
Melissa

I find the wildlife entertaining around here too. I haven't seen any skunks but have occasionally smelled them. We have rabbits, chipmunks, squirrels, possums, and occasional red foxes. There are lots of bird varieties (though no wild turkeys, how cool!) and we have lightening bugs too. Bees are abundant in this area.

Loved lightening bugs, part of the magic of my childhood. They do not live in the American West.

In many ways, I don't blame you one bit, Folly. I, too, have far too many squirrels, rats, gophers, moles, coyotes (enough so that the dogs can only be taken out in front where it is walled and secured against their invasion), rabbits and these bloody Towhees which unearth every stinking pot no matter what its size. Even though the seedlings are too tall to have their lids put back in place, I've had to reinstall them, smashing the growing plants to keep the Towhees out of the boxes. They're tearing everything up, unearthing seedlings and destroying my efforts. I don't spray and the only toxic substances I've used has been for the moles and gophers IN the garden proper. I enjoy seeing the hawks and the occasional vulture, but the others are encroaching much to intimately in to MY space. There is nearly three-quarters of an acre to this hill. I use less than 20% of it, the only portion of the hill they desire using too. Kim

I'm feeling a little less happy about the wildlife today as I've noticed that every one of my lilies -- oriental and asiatics -- has been eaten down by one of the critters. I can tell my deer fence is still working because the roses and hostas haven't been touched, so I suspect the rabbits or possibly chipmunk or squirrels?

Rabbits have done a lot of damage to my roses, the only wildlife I want to invite is hawks, so they can catch all the rabbits in my rose garden......