Sally Evans – Sharing the Biodiverse Backyard

September 12, 2020       

This week is a big biodiversity search in our DFW area but I have been unable to participate due to other circumstances.  So today I took a walk in my yard.  I discovered I had missed three moon blooms last evening as their blooms were now hanging listlessly on the vine.  BUT there is the promise of two more coming and very soon.  I will have to be watchful after the sunset.  As I looked at the blooms I became aware of a parade of ants going up and down a metal fence post.  Those going up were ‘empty-handed’ but those going down were carrying egg sacks to a new destination on the ground in the ground cover.  They had apparently taken those precious bundles to a high spot during the rains – which happens to be a hole in my fence.  As a I watched them I was aware of another movement as a very small green anole moved along the fence and then jumped into a bush for a morsel to eat.  This animal was less than an inch long but its tail was at least two inches long. 

All over the yard are patches of surprise lilies in a brilliant orange red color.  They suddenly pop up from the ground after that first fall rain – September 1 was the date this year – and they have continued coming up and blooming since them.  Some have started their decline by losing their vivid color.  I noted that in one area some were laying on the ground and something had stepped on them and broken them.  Who or what was exploring my garden when I wasn’t looking?  A tiny toad – about a half a penny size – moved away from my big feet.  He could only hop a few inches but he did so quickly and disappeared in the ground cover of leaves.

I walked around a corner and found another anole of a more adult size.  Part of its tail was green but the lower half was smaller and brown.  I would guess it had met with a predator and was able to escape with just the loss of part of its anatomy.  As I watched it climb up a wall of the green house a very small frog suddenly jumped high into the air and continued hopping towards a bush.  I had finally seen one of the Rio Grande frogs that I can hear so often at night.  Biodiversity journeys are often found at home.