Creatures in my yard

Hi there Mary and Jeni,

I have been going through this years photo's and have come up with a collection of creatures that I have captured, photographically, in the yard. One of the first thing different this year were the two Canada Geese who decided to hang around on top of the decrepit old barn. They used it as a vantage point to honk at all the other birds in the slough just beyond. They came into the yard for several weeks to do this. My were they noisy!

At about the same time my tulips from last fall were starting to bloom. At my feet you can see the asparagus stalks which will cover that corner of the garden are starting to come up.

Next is the froggie from my pond cleaning. I am not sure if all the little tiny frogs I see are his babies, but I have seen many little ones out in the grass. They shimmer with gold when they are young. Soooo pretty.

Another frog, a tree frog, spent some time on our furnace exhaust pipe one day.

It let me get really close for the picture.

We also had a good looking buck and two of his buddies come into the yard. I had never seen three males together before. They all had quite big racks so I hope they make it through the hunting season. He sure was pretty.

After the garden started to green up a little we had a young woodchuck come visit our Sugar Snap Peas. The little rodent!

And a racoon who visited the bird feeders in the late afternoon.

And of course I took lots of pictures of birds. It was hard to choose. Here is my shy Grey Catbird. He didn't see me, he was intent on the jelly feeder. He has to fight the Orioles for it.

Here is a mama oriole finding stringy bits of the milkweed stalks from last year for her nest. That is why I don't allow Jim to go all Norwegian on me and clean up the garden in the fall.

And an Oriole fledgling on a daylilly stem. They eat your flowers you know! They especially like the unopened buds.

Here one is munching on my heritage purple morning glories.

I also got a good look at a Golden Shafted Flicker. What a noisy bird!

I also had several swallows nesting on the house. This is a bank swallow nest. I love the grumpy way the babies look. We also had barn swallows nesting. Their nest is more open and the nesting birds tail sticks out. More like half a robins nest stuck to the wall.

Alice is occasionally allowed in the garden. But only under strict supervision. She lives in hope of course, and whenever one of us is in the garden takes up her post on the chair in the mudroom and watches intently.

This is latest 4 legged visitor. He came in shivering and sopping wet and smelling like the slough. So I toweled him off and he decided I was his friend for life. He is a cute puppy but we called around and found his owner. Turns out his name is Bolt (after the movie, not his wandering tendencies). He was named by a three year old. He was a very nice visitor for a few hours.

This is the most recent picture, taken on Wednesday. One of only 6 monarchs in the garden this year. Usually we have hoards! It likes the zinnias Jim is partial to. I like the ones that look like they have bed head myself.

Love,

Nancy