I’m listening to the spring peepers calling outside my window. The peepers say that it is spring and time to get busy. Battling for vocal supremacy, these tiny frogs try to attract a mate. Spring peeping can go on for weeks on any warm day down by the pond. Soon the water will have masses of eggs and after that, millions of tadpoles. Later in the year the American toads take over the symphony. It is amazing that something so small can make so much noise. Their calls echo off the brick walls of my house calling in their sweethearts.
The cardinals are also in the mood this spring. The males and females flirt, flying from tree to tree. Love is on the mind of all the birds. The little wren is checking out each knothole in the silver maple looking for a safe place to raise some babies. The mockingbird perches on my chimney and sings out his best calls hoping someone will be impressed. And somewhere I hear a woodpecker drumming up a territory fit for a woodpecker family.
Even the plants are feeling sexy. The silver maple is releasing pollen into the wind, hoping it lands in the right spot and forms a seed pod. Many plants release hormones to trick insects into exploring their flowers in hopes of some pollen being transferred to a neighboring plant. Plants are using insect sexual behaviors to have sex themselves, kinky. The insects are also doing it on the flowers. I see two beetles locked together gathering nectar from a flower not wanting to take a break from gathering resources even for the perfect mate.
All this fecundity would not be happening in my garden if these animals did not feel that the resources were available to raise a family. A garden must have a plentiful source of food to raise young, this means lots of insects, pollen, and seeds. The parents also want to feel safe with shrubs to hide in, knot holes to nest in, and a reliable source of water. Safe habitat comes naturally with native plant gardening and so does the sex. This garden is all about the birds and the bees.
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