Into the Woods

We have been getting lots of wildlife in the yard this year. At the top is a bunny that was visiting last Spring, and now we have him or his big brother or mother, lounging around in the yard like he is our pet. The bunny was munching on a piece of grape vine that I had pruned, so it must have been in the Fall. Next, of course, is the ever popular brown slug. We have loads of these since the woods (or Forest as my husband refers to it) is only about 100 feet away in any direction. Whenever it rains, after flowers start to appear, I am out ruthlessly stabbing them with the sharp sticks I have placed at strategic points around the yard, and flinging them back into the woods from whence they slithered.

Next is a very ambitious racoon that was skulking around, stealing food from the bird feeders, even though husband had placed them high up in the attempt to foil the squirrels. Next a lovely butterfly, last summer. I assume we will see them again this summer, though I might have to buy another verbena plant to lure them to hang around for picture taking.

And then one of the many little red squirrels that scamper all over our yard, digging up bulbs, eating the bird seed, coming to the patio door to look in, presumably wondering when I'm going to come outside to put out more bird seed for them.

The last is a nice, fat lizard that was sunning himself next to the garage door earlier this Spring. Haven't seen him since, but we think he lives under the garage floor. I took his picture with the 70--300 mm lens I got for Christmas so he looks really big, though if you compare him to the mouse trap (oh yeah, we have lots of mice, too) you can judge his real size.

We also have at least one bat that resides high up under the eave of the house roof--we can only occasionally see part of him, but if we sit out at dusk we can watch him sailing around and around in circles above the house, cleaning the air of (hopefully) mosquitoes.

And we have a Barn Swallow Mr. and Mrs. who build their nest in a swallow box we put up several years ago. This is probably the 4th year they've used the nest. Last year I took very blurry photos of the babies, but this year, with my new zoom lens, I should get better ones and not scare the parents as badly. We have two more nests in the yard, that we know about, and many more out there, I'm sure. One is in the Liberty Apple tree--a robin's nest, used and redecorated every year. I've seen Mrs. Robin picking up long strands of dry grasses and pretending not to be going to the tree.

The other nest I found accidentally when I pulled down a hanging basket that I had planted a geranium in a couple of weeks before. I was going to put some Lobelia in it, but there was a cup-size nest, perfectly round, right next to the geranium, and in it were 4 blue, speckled eggs. I thought it must be another Robin's nest and my birder friend thought so, too. But a week later while I was watering another planter close by, I saw the little black head of a Junco. Mama Junco was sitting on her eggs. Since then the babies have hatched and I see Mama J. flying back and forth to the nest. She doesn't seem to be too worried about me. Maybe she can tell that I mean her no harm, as I avoid getting too close now. I haven't watered that geranium since I discovered the nest. Good think they don't require much water. I doubt I will ever be able to get a photo of this tiny family. There is no place to lurk nearby to get a good one.

This morning I took pictures of the Big Bunny Rabbit, lounging in the garden. I'll post a photo of him later. I guess I should give him a name, since he seems to think he owns the place. Maybe Harvey.....but he's know hallucination.