THE WILDLIFE OF SRAVASTI ABBEY
With bodhicitta as a main practice, one begins to realize that our wild friends who share this world with us are included in that deep aspiration.
Since Sravasti Abbey’s founding, there has been an increased diversity of sentient beings who call the Abbey their home. The non-human residents also seem to be much less afraid of humans as time goes on.
Perhaps they know that we are working on our bodhicitta, and that they are included in our motivation to lead all beings to enlightenment.
 One of the swift, acrobatic tree swallows perches on one of Harold’s old birdhouses in the vegetable garden.
 The Abbey meadows are home to large anthills that seem to grow every year. We recently moved one gently, piece by piece, to a new home after discovering it in the construction site of the monastic residence.
A female blue bird sits in our locust tree.
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A camera shy garter snake shows his displeasure at being photographed.
 Three hundred tiny Larinus minutus, otherwise known as lesser knapweed flower weevil, get released in a small test area of knapweed. They eat the seeds of the plant and lay eggs for a successive generation of weevils. The Abbey is curious to see if one infested site shows a decrease in knapweed over the next 3 years.
 A mysterious beautiful caterpillar crawls up a branch of the ninebark shrub in the Abbey meadow.
 One of our many chipmunk friends who spend much of their time on the fence and in the rock garden.
 Making prayers for a precious human life perhaps? This preying mantis is a rare visitor to the Abbey gardens.
 A pair of robins bathing in our concrete birdbath.
 In winter our little snowshoe rabbit resident is pure white. As spring turns to summer its coat turns slowly brown. Two of them (one a baby we think) have become frequent visitors and are quite tame.
 One of our more comical friends is mother squirrel who chews drainpipe, and uses prayer flags for nesting material. She brings a lot of laughs as she did this day when she climbed on the screen door.
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