Hi! I'm Maria!
Mother, grandmother, passionate about native gardens, birds, wildlife and collies, writer, author, believer in fairies ...
Wildlife advocate, Maria Daddino, receives first honorable mention at the 2012 Los Angeles Book Festival and two nominations for the 2012 Global eBook Awards for her “Maria’s Duck Tales” … to read more click the link above.
I named her Rose partly because she is so beautiful and so delicate … and partly because she reminded me of someone very special to me. She stayed all summer, thrilling me with her graceful flights and enjoying the nectar from all the special flowers I had planted in my garden for her. She visited several times a day, resting on dead tree limbs or my wrought iron pillars, and I couldn’t help but wonder if her nest was hidden somewhere in my garden.
I hated the thought of her leaving … migrating to Costa Rica … flying non-stop, some five hundred miles, over the Gulf. When she finally did leave, I truly missed her daily visits.
And, then, today, I received another gift of nature … another marvel … or marvels … four ruby-throated hummingbirds were in my garden enjoying my Agastache and my Spigelia marilandica, a beautiful native wildflower with wonderful tubular orange blossoms. They stayed for quite a while just enjoying … but not as much as I!
A September Weekend …
This weekend was absolutely glorious … in the low 70’s, sunny and dry … a weekend that I just don’t want to end.
I guess my wild-friends felt that way too since they all made an appearance. The twin fawns and the turkey babies have really grown … almost as big as their moms!
Millie, the bunny, is also getting big … but, thankfully, not as quickly as the fawns and the turkeys.
My pond was covered today with a flock of bluejays … a lot prettier and more colorful than the grackles … and just as rambunctious!
I saw Rose, the hummingbird, earlier in the week. I wonder when she’ll migrate. It is truly amazing that when ruby-throated hummingbirds migrate to Costa Rica they cross the Gulf … some 500 miles … non-stop!
My weekend was extra special because my son Michael came to visit. He cooked me an absolutely delicious dinner: pork chops in a brown sugar sauce, smashed red potatoes and green beans with a fresh-from-my-garden tomato and onion glaze. Yummy ….
Millie …
A sweet baby bunny who lives in my garden and who, apparently, is totally unafraid of me. When I get really close to her, she just looks at me with those beautiful trusting brown eyes and continues eating. I keep telling her “Miliie, you’ve got to run away from me” but she just twitches her nose in that cute bunny way and continues doing whatever she’s doing.
John … Millie’s brother … … is much more cautious than his sister. He runs away the minute I open the door. I love seeing his white cotton-tail. He’s enjoying the clover that I leave all over my garden as a special treat for my bunnies!
Elise … … comes into my garden late in the afternoon … around 5 p.m. She sometimes gets annoyed if I’m watering my plants … I can hear her back in the woods stomping her foot and making that sort of deer “snort” to let me know she wants me out of “her” garden!
Elise is the mother of the twin fawns and it is truly amazing to watch her teach her kids.
George …
… the groundhog … has rather unartistically begun the construction of his new home in my “artistic” herb garden. He gathers young peppers from my vegetable garden and seasons them with my aromatic herbs. He’s very “at home” anywhere in my garden and tries to stare me down … as if it’s his garden!
The Twins …
A very special late July surprise … twin fawns … in my garden … running carefree … sniffing … investigating … curious little “wild-friends” … running away from their mama … but listening to her secret calls … almost posing for my camera … tasting lots of flowers … just enjoying being …
A Summer’s Pond …
Life on the East End is sweet … particularly in the summer. The ocean breezes work their magic, easing the heat of the day and cooling the dark nights. The sun is so bright … it dazzles and the nighttime sky … well … it is simply magnificent. I look upward each evening and am always awed and humbled by the beauty and brightness of the twinkling stars and the brilliance of the moon. It is almost as if I can reach up and touch them.
The wildlife here is abundant and the birds, both native and migrating, never cease to amaze. I am so very fortunate to have daily visits from “wild-friends” that I had previously only seen in books.
I will be writing more and posting pictures of all my visitors so stay tuned …
It’s 5 p.m. and bitter cold … cold enough for beautiful ice formations to form on the waterfall by the pond. I surprised the turkeys when I went out to fill up the corn feeders. They didn’t seem particularly bothered though … they just moved further back into the woods. Misty was with me but they didn’t seem to mind her either … although she was the one who alerted me that they were in the woods.
My feeders have been busy all day with chickadees, tufted titmice, doves, juncos, bluejays, crows, wrens and sparrows and what is this year’s favorite … the red-breasted nuthatches. The woodpeckers enjoyed the suet and a lone robin gobbled up my holly berries.
I was enjoying watching a cardinal eating the safflower seeds I had just put out … his red feathers so bright and beautiful on this late and cold winter afternoon … when out of the corner of my eye I saw something move … it was my doe who pretty much comes at this time each day … almost always alone … but today two of her friends have joined her. Food must be scarce. I’m glad they know there is always corn for them here.
Yesterday was so different. It was almost 40 degrees warmer. In the morning, a magical mist enveloped the pond, and, with the morning sun rising behinds the pines and oaks, it was a most mystical morning. Just exquisite!
Around 10 a.m., I was visited by a flock of migrating grackles. In all my years of watching the birds, I have never ever seen a flock so large … 500 or more. They were all over the pond, the feeders, the trees, the grass. Everything was black. There wasn’t a patch of green anywhere. They have been visiting all week. They stay perhaps 10 to 15 minutes and then they all fly up in a gigantic swirling black mass. Truly amazing … like something out of Alfred Hitchcocks’ “The Birds”.
Life is sweet …
