Elin’s Downtown Wilderness

Wildlife abounds even in town

We ’re off to East Tennessee today to chew the fat with Elin Johnson .

There is a logic gate in the fence in the backyard of my condominium in downtown Farragut , Tennessee . Walk through it and you could enter a wilderness you might not expect to find there . There is a footpath behind the fence belong to the homeowners association , and then the land precipitate off sharply to a little stream that flows below .

When I moved here five age ago , the stream was little , but one summer it start to get bombastic . Its banks lastly reached the size of a pool . Someone enjoin me beavers had build a dam and the urine was backing up , but I did n’t think them .

Then I acknowledge something nearby that convinced me . Only beaver could have done this . This place is validation of the resilience of nature , and I ’d care to show you more thing I have experienced here that convert me of this . My condo is so close to the interstate highway that I can take heed the traffic , and I can see a major highway when I take the air my dog . I can see the signs of a big hotel and the Cracker Barrel from here . But wildlife is not only episodic here but subsist here in abundance .

In the summertime of 2023 my champion Larry built a flowerbed for me along the bank down to the water . I planted peak for the bees and butterflies that live there . But some thing I plant will not rejoin this twelvemonth — bunnies and deer enjoyed eating them . ( Apparently they do n’t like marigolds . ) But I ’ll taste again .

Many dragonflies fly about . Butterflies are also numerous here . One fall a couple of years ago there were a slew of milkweed butterfly butterfly that were fly south . I count 13 one afternoon . ( I take to plant some milkweed down by the creek . ) This black swallow-tailed coat is perch on aVerbenabonariensis(Zones 7–9 or as an annual)flower .

wench are numerous — many types . I have thought for many year that I-75 is a north - to - south migrant route for the birds , and inhabit this close has affirm that . This wintertime I have observed many warblers that have amount to Tennessee for the wintertime . And other birds can be honor in springiness and return making their path back and forth . There are bluebirds , towhee , Cardinalis cardinalis , chickadees , and Carolina wrens that populate here yr - round . And then there are the hawk who take advantage of this copiousness . They hound regularly in the wilderness .

give is nearly here !

It ’s March now , and the progress is beginning .

Life in my business district wilderness is beginning to flourish ! I wonder what my beautiful raw world will display this year . Every class bring more surprise .

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