Today in My Big Backyard

Birds
wrens
tufted titmice
female cardinal
female and male house sparrows
chickadee
blue jay
a bird calling "here, here"
hummingbird
nuthatch
mourning doves
male and female house finches

Butterflies & other Insects
Red Admiral
Cabbage
Monarch
Blue Wasps

Scents
Cilantro
Petunias
Lilies
Compost
Sassafras ?

Sounds
Cardinals
Blue Jays
Wrens

Blueberry Visitors

Sketching out in the garden this morning at 7:30 near the blueberry bushes. A family (I'm guessing) of five wrens were checking out the blueberries. There is netting over the bushes, so they weren't able to get in. They were intensely trying to figure out how to sneak in, not caring that I was about five feet away.

A female finch is on the sunflower feeder very close to me. I must have been sitting still enough for her not to notice me.

Crows are out this morning saying "un-uh".

The catbird is trying to get to the blueberries now.

A Baby Bunny - The Newest Visitor to Our Backyard

Last Friday I was doing some weeding and planting in the fenced garden and thinking how nice it would be to discover a new creature here. I prayed and asked God to show me a small animal up close; not one that could bite like a snake, but maybe a toad, salamander or chipmunk. Not more than a half hour passed when out of the corner of my eye, a very tiny rabbit scrambled from between a row of raised beds and scurried under the compost tumblers! This was a first! I consider that a prayer answered!

The question is how the baby bunny got into the garden. There is chicken wire running the bottom of the entire length of fencing as well as under the tool shed. I did have the garden gates open, so it is possible he scampered in through one of those. We can see him from the windows of the house, happily eating the grass and weeds that are growing on the ground. He is too small yet to reach the raised beds. Yesterday while watering, he appeared and did not seem too afraid of me, but I got a little too close so he escaped into the toolshed.  When I was done watering, I got my camera hoping to be able to snap a picture of him. I placed a handful of freshly picked dandelion greens in the doorway and waited. He didn't appear. I got tired of waiting so set about taking photos of the plants and insects also inhabiting this garden.  The bunny did emerge once again and I was able to get this photo! Cute isn't he? (or she?)

Here is a link to the other photos I took of the garden:

 http://www.flickr.com/photos/susanernst/sets/72157630215254224/

Bird Visitors

For a while (about one month I'd say) the activity at the bird feeders dropped drastically. Only house sparrows were constant visitors taking endless trips to feed their babies.  Mourning Doves were constant as well, but everyone else seemed to move on or switch to eating bugs and worms.

Lately the house (and maybe some purple) finches have been feeding here on a regular basis. Lots and lots of them! I'd say about 5 males and 20 females and/or juveniles! Yesterday there were 7 goldfinches - all males - at the bird bath! I believe I saw an oriole chase a crow last Sunday.

Today I saw a downy woodpecker at the back feeder, a nuthatch at the front feeder, red winged blackbirds on the ground below the large feeder in the enclosed garden, and a red bellied woodpecker on top of one of the cedar posts. Other visitors to the garden and feeders today were grackles, black birds, blue jays, cardinals, catbirds and robins.

And I saw a cotton tail bunny out back by the sour wood tree! It is so cute and tiny!! Saw it or another one last night too.