Wildlife

The location of our house offers us daily wildlife visits, for which we never tire of watching.  The common sightings include birds (of all sizes & varieties), squirrels, chipmunks, & deer.  Unfortunately, we also battle with neighbor cats using our yard as their hunting ground or litter box.  I'd really like to pop them in the behind with a BB pellet - not hurt them but scare them off - but apparently that's a felony.  Fiiiine, we won't resort to animal cruelty.  (Seriously though, I don't let my dog wander around the neighborhood to s**t in other people's yards or terrorize other critters, why the hell do you get away with it because you have an "outside" cat?)  I think we'll resort to a squirt gun & letting Guinness out to chase them anytime we see them.

On a more rare occasion, we're delighted with visits from more skittish creatures.  Yesterday evening, a small fox came cruising through our yard, looking for dinner.

 Mid-pounce!  Didn't appear to be a successful hunt, he (she?) didn't walk away with anything wriggling in his/her jaw.

Wherein life is consumed by a ten pound human

Parents, how do you get anything done with a baby?  Since we had her, it seems like we've barely been able to take care of the essentials to maintain sanity (running, showering, eating & laundry).  One of us is usually running interference with the little one, giving the other spouse a few minutes to get something done.  Let's ignore the fact the house desperately needs cleaned & home improvement has come to all but a standstill.

Despite it all, we fall in love with her over and over and over again.  And each day she surprises us with new development - smiles, giggles, movement.

 Her hair is fabulous.

 Hands by the head/face for sleeping.  Always.

 "Please, no pictures right now."

 Her papa put her down in front of the mirror in our room & she was instantly fascinated.  Look closely & you can see Brewer's snout, checking things out.

 Coy smile.

 Our turkey was not amused.

 These are the moments when the plug comes in handy.

As I was looking through pictures, I realized we never posted these pictures from the fall, shortly after we moved into the house.  We have a dogwood shrub which we happily discovered attracts a large variety of birds.  We'd sit in our sun room, eating dinner & watching the birds fill up on the berries, preparing for winter.

More recently, we've had a series of strong windstorms.  We saw this girl taking advantage of the spilled sunflower seeds from the bird feeder after a strong wind blew through the area.

Circle of life

It never occurred to me a plethora of bird feeders would attract predators.  (Sometimes I'm in denial about the circle of life)  Minutes after submitting my posting below, I looked out the window to see a pigeon-sized bird eating something on a branch & acting quite differently than the pigeons that usually invade our trees.  With the binoculars & zoom lens, we realized a hawk had most likely turned one of our regular small bird visitors into an early dinner.  The occasional tiny feather dropping from the tree was another pretty good clue it was a bird meal & not a rodent meal.  (I'm really hoping it wasn't our resident Black-Capped Chickadee)  Looking through our bird book, we narrowed it down to Cooper's Hawk or Sharp-Skinned Hawk:

In a previous life...

I think I might have been an Ornithologist.  I have a deep-rooted love of birds.  Don't ask - I have no idea.  Then again, I have a deep-rooted love of all animals.  If you don't believe me, ask my parents about their unspoken distress when I told them I wanted to go into law school.  For animal rights.  (Don't worry, Mom & Dad, it was a phase)

With our new camera - the Olympus E-PL5 (a Christmas treat to ourselves, mostly keeping in mind our upcoming Ireland trip) - I've been having a lot of fun capturing activity at our multiple bird feeders (I did spring for a zoom lens when it was on sale).

A well-used & much appreciated Christmas gift from the in-laws (if you look closely, you'll notice the springs which pull the well-placed metal leaves over the openings to prevent heavier critters, such as squirrels, from scaring away the birds & eating all the food):

Our My friend, the squirrel (whom drives the dogs nuts):

Our resident Black Capped Chickadee - a very bold, opinionated, loud-mouthed little thing.  It's always yelling at me when I'm filling the feeders & doesn't mind eating while I'm standing three feet away.

Don't mind the blur on the right side of the picture - that may or may not be a reflection of my pink & red pajama pants on the window while I took the picture.

Wildlife friends

We've had bird feeders in our front yard for a few years, but it seems the birds are just now getting comfortable enough to visit & enjoy the constant stream of food.  With summer finally here, we've really noticed an abundance of birds visiting, including a few beautifully colorful cuties (sorry, probably not the preferred nomenclature):

This blue fella appears to be a Lazuli Bunting, although the blurry picture & lack of a rear view make it difficult  to be certain.  My dear ornithologist brother, what's your educated guess?

This fiery bird appears to be a Western Tanager.  I adore the fabulously bright red & yellow.

[Please excuse the poor zoom - they were, after all, taken from a living room window with small zoom camera]

We've also been privy to a visit from this fantastically lemon-yellow bird, but they're too quick for us to grab a pic.