We have seen lots of baby birds and have had a nest of baby
bunnies in the middle of our garden this last spring. Juvenile
(fledgling) robins are so much fun. They can fly a little bit, but
they are not very good at it. They are also not yet scared of people.
We have been able to get within a just a couple of feet of them for
close observation.
The pictures here are one of the many young robins
that have been in the yard. What was funny about this one as that it
came up and tapped on my patio door window next to where I was
sitting. I thought at first it was the neighbor lady, but there was
no one outside the door. It tapped again at the window and cheeped at
me several times when I saw it. Everyone got to see it - very cool!
This was after the youngest one banged on the window to tell it high.
Then, it eventually flew off.
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Sounding the alarm |
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Go away Hawk! |
We also have a very active hawk in the area. We know
when it is near because all the birds go into a tizzy and instead of
bird song, we get to hear bird alarm. We get the same alarm
(although, not as intense) when our cat sneaks out. The birds tend to
congregate at the top of the pine tree and yell at the hawk.
Here we are at the end of June and it looks like we
might finally get some summertime! How do we know? Because the
Hollyhocks blossomed this morning!! Aren't they gorgeous? Thus far,
we have 3 colors. The last couple of summers, they have not been very
plentiful and have been under 5 feet tall. The plants are gigantic
this year. The ones in the flowerbed outside my patio door are almost
7 feet tall! The pre-bloom picture shown here was taken about a month
ago. Notice it is still fairly short and squat.
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Milkweed plant just before it blooms |
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Do you see the creature in the upper left? |
The milkweed is one of our favorite plants because it
brings the Monarch butterflies up close for us to watch since the
plants are next to the back step. The flower balls start out very
small, but they open up into a sort of droopy ball. They are very
pretty and the smell is heavenly. You need these in your flower beds!
If you notice, there is another visitor in the picture. The milkweed
also finally opened today. Hurray!
We have also been watching what we think is a vole
darting back and forth across our patio from one flowerbed to the
other. I catch her out of the corner of my eye rather often. I had to
look because I have seen mice out
there on occasion, but this was not
a mouse. They are newcomers to our yard this year.
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Teeny tiny baby voles - the pink things. |
How do I know it is a "she"? Because she had
babies....in the middle of our lawn! Ack! I mowed on Wednesday night
and since then, under a small pile of grass that was left on top, she
built a nest. They are so very, very tiny. You can see the tiny bit
of pink in the first picture on the right. I think that is at least 2
of them....maybe 3. Look at the size of the clover leaf next to them
in comparison! To be expected, of course, from such a small creature,
but still just amazing to think about such tiny creatures being born!