When I first began Serendipity Gardens, over nine years ago, I wanted lots of flowers. I didn’t much care about building a backyard habitat.
Over the years, however, as I’ve watched the creatures who make their home there work and play, live and die, I’ve come to care very much about building a backyard habitat and respecting the ecosystem that has developed.
I have come to believe that while I cannot repair or replace all the animal habitat that is lost every day, month, and year, I can maintain my backyard ecosystem. If more people did the same, surely it would help.
The downside is, sometimes you see things you’d just as soon not see!
Frogs are an important part of our backyard ecosystem … but so are the snakes that eat them.
I love the mosquito-eating frogs, and I don’t much like the snakes. But I don’t do anything to favor the creatures I like (except make sure that they have places to hide) or to disfavor the ones I don’t like. Both have a role to play, and together, they have a way of keeping things balanced.
This is primal stuff sometimes, yet it’s how an ecosystem works: predator and prey, in a constant struggle for mastery. If either one wins, things get out of balance. So one day, the predator gets his prey — and his meal. On another day, the predator may go hungry, while the prey escapes being eaten. It’s not always easy to watch, as this photo clearly shows.
Kellas Brown took the photo while he was working in the garden one day. Every time I look at it, I shudder. The poor frog looks so stoic, somehow, as the snake slowly pulls him in.
What are you doing to build a backyard ecosystem? Read about what it takes to certify your backyard.
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Eeeeew. That picture makes me cringe! I know it’s the way of things, but, as you said, it’s not pretty!