We've been keeping a spreadsheet of the animals residing in our yard throughout the year. Each time we see a new species, the species is added to the spreadsheet, and the count is updated. Ideally if planting native flora is beneficial, the yard should become a haven for fauna, so as part of our grand experiment we are tracking the results.
Below is a table showing a summary of our identified visitors since we started the tracking spreadsheet.
| Year | Reptile / Amph. | Mammals | Bees / Butterflies | Birds |
| 2012 | 1 | 5 | 13 | 31 |
| 2013 | 1 | 7 | 14 | 40 |
Highlights from 2013
We had a marsupial visitor early in the morning during the early Spring. This was the first time we saw a Virginia Opossum in our yard.
This Red Tailed Hawk used our neighbor's tree to do some hunting in our yard.
We had an Eastern Bluebird come check out the garden's bird house, only to discover the Chickadees had gotten their first.
Of the 5 eggs, 3 successfully hatched, fledged, and left the box.
We had Baltimore Orioles for the first time. They hung out for a couple of weeks in May.
There was also the turkey from this post.
The flowers also did a reasonable job attracting butterflies including this Black Swallowtail.
2013 was a pretty good year for us with lots of interesting happenings in the yard. We're looking forward to an equally eventful 2014.
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