Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Backyard wildlife

With the long weekend, we were at home more than usual, which made the parrots happy, and also afforded us more time to watch our backyard wildlife.  The did not disappoint!  Our woodchuck, who has been making about one appearance a year for the past few years, was out and about:
I did a bit of research and apparently they sit up like this when they are on the lookout for danger:
He was out again this morning; I hope he sticks around longer this year!

With the recent spate of hot weather, our bird bath has been quite popular.  Unfortunately, they usually fly off by the time I get my camera in position, but this female house finch let me photograph her:
In robin nesting news, the second brood has hatched.  I've been able to see at least two baby robin heads popping up begging for food.  As they grow larger, I may find a third, like last time.  Here is the mother, feeding her chicks:
I still haven't been able to figure out what birds nested in our backyard; I'm guessing grackles due to the fact that there has been a grackle family in my yard the past few days, as well as grackles scolding us when we were in our upstairs bathroom, which is quite near the nest (though not near enough to get a look inside it.)

Speaking of robins, after our Sunday morning run, Thomas went into the backyard to clean and refill the birdbath, when he surprised a fledgling robin!
When the baby saw us, she hopped to safety under a large pine tree.  En route:
Later that day, I saw another baby on our patio; not sure if it's the same one:
This one eventually made it to the birdbath.  We think her beak was open in hopes of getting fed by her parents, but this is just a guess on our part.
This morning, another fledgling robin was bathing in the birdbath, but left when I got the camera.  In addition, there was a fair amount of squirrel activity.

1 comment:

phonelady said...

I love it when wildlife lets us have a look .