A Hot Summer Day Filled with Wildlife Activity

The front and back porches are too hot to sit on right now and I want to be outside while reading and taking notes.  The temperature is 90 + or - a degree or two. I moved one of the cushiony chairs and side tables from the back porch out to a shady spot on the grass overlooking the hummingbird feeder, butterfly bush and perennial garden.  Turning my head to the right, I can glance out over the meadow and see the pond. A slight turn to the left and I can see what is going on at the bird feeders.

There is a lovely breeze that cools the skin and sends the luscious fragrances of lily, buddleia and greenery past my nostrils.  Yellow tiger swallowtails, a black swallowtail, monarchs, cabbage whites, sulphurs, azures, and a variety of bees and wasps, including the large blue ones, are flying about and feeding on the nectar of the catmints, butterfly weed, buddleia, cosmos and other flowers in the garden, as well as on the white clover blossoms in the lawn.

The neighborhood is quiet except for the passing cars. No lawn mowers or weed wackers today. No radios or people swimming and shouting in the pool across the street or the houses behind the woods.  No children shouting, no dogs barking.  Quite nice for meditating and watching the butterflies silently flit about.


I borrowed some books from the library yesterday that I hope will help to identify all of the varieties of pollinators I encounter in the garden and also learn which host plants are needed to keep them around year after year.

The hummingbird just came to the feeder.  This is the closest I've been able to see it. I hope she comes back and isn't startled by movement from me. I'd like to put the binoculars up to my eyes to get an even closer look, but that may frighten her away.

Blue Dasher

Blue Dasher

Spied this beauty a few minutes ago.

Rose Breasted Grosbeak

I saw this Rose Breasted Grosbeak at the bird feeder this morning around 6:40 a.m. This is the first time I have seen a real one. Yesterday I went outside with binoculars to get a closer look at what I thought was a new sparrow to the garden. I had noticed white stripes along either the side of the head. I then looked in my Birds of Connecticut book, but could not identify it. I did see a photo of a female rose breasted grosbeak that looked similar, but without seeing them here before, was reluctant to identify it as such. Spotting the male this morning does confirm the bird I saw yesterday. Though it could also have been a juvenile grosbeak. This is probably the case because it was the size of a sparrow with a larger-than-sparrow-sized beak.

So Much Living and Activity Going On in My Big Backyard

I've been spending quite a lot of time outside gardening, weeding, watering, filling bird and hummingbird feeders, birdbaths, and walking, roaming and sitting. It is amazing what you will see when you are outside, quiet and observant.  Today I discovered that it is a chipmunk who made a hole in the hill behind the perennial garden. I saw him go up the hill to feast on fallen seeds from the bird feeder. When I got too close (he did let me get quite close!), he scurried down to the hole and sat very still in the opening, hoping I wouldn't notice him I suppose! Again when I got too close, he turned and went inside.

The Monarch butterflies are enjoying the butterfly weed flowers. They stay put on them sucking out the nectar with their proboscis. Again, I was able to get quite close to observe this. Cabbage butterflies, sulfurs, blue azures, commas, red admirals and painted ladies all can be seen flying around.

Then, while picking blueberries, a mass of ants came from under the fence, across the grass and seemed to be heading to the exact spot I was at! I moved out of the way. They continued on their way, like a river swimming through the grass, up the raised bed, across it, down the other side and kept going! I went back to picking the blueberries, then looked for them when I was done, but could not locate them. They moved quickly! I have never seen that before!!

Again I saw the hummingbird at the feeder. As always, the house finches, maybe purple finches, assorted sparrows, cardinals, titmice, chickadees, hairy and downy woodpeckers, nuthatches, mourning doves, bluejays and grackles took turns at the different feeders and the wrens,sparrows and catbirds foraged the plants for insects.

I really must bring my camera with me every time I go outside.

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/