Recent Wildlife

A few months ago, I wrote about the noise that frogs were making in our retention pond behind our house. It was really loud this past weekend when we had a couple of nice days. But, on Sunday, mid-day, my son and I noticed that they were quiet so we went out to the edge of the pond to look for frog eggs. We did not see any like the sac of eggs we found once, a long time ago, in a small creek near our lake cabin. In fact, we did not see any eggs or frogs at all. Strangely enough, after we looked they started up with their “noisemaking” again!

Besides all the frogs, we have seen a fair amount of wildlife in the yard recently. On Monday morning we saw two young deer.  It was kind of funny. We first saw them out in the old cow pasture (the cows no longer graze here) and then they headed straight up a new walking path that goes behind our house. Funny. I was good with it all until they got to our apple trees and then felt the need to shoo them away.

Today, I saw two indigo buntings, on two separate occasions. Gorgeous blue, but I was in a vehicle so I have no photos to share. Likewise, this is true for the Baltimore Orioles that visited our hummingbird feeder in the two weeks that it has been hung. The orange on this species of bird is so vibrant! I love to watch them. Hummingbirds have been constant visitors to the feeder. They come more often when it is rainy like it was yesterday. Their feeder hangs outside our kitchen table window so we can can watch them come and go. And, fight! Our hummers seem very territorial!. If one is feeding and another hummingbird comes, the one that is feeding chases the other one away. But, this morning, my husband drew my attention towards the feeder as two little hummers were sitting opposite to one another on the feeder. It was very cute! I wondered if they were related and that is why they were not fighting.

Tonight, after dinner, I saw a local blue bird sitting on obelisk.  We have four blue bird houses lining our property – don’t worry, they are the obligatory distance apart.  We always have blue birds and I think they are fun to watch.

We get a fair amount of Goldfinches and I offer them thistle seeds on which to feed. The feeders have been emptied almost as fast as i can fill them.  Red Winged Black Birds and Cardinals also are frequent visitors.

This fascination with birds is relatively new for me.  Like butterflies, birds are colorful living decorations for my yard. Providing habitat for them is something that makes me happy!