Tuesday, September 25, 2007

September Sunrise

Baby Nibbles and his Mother our "Wild Rabbit Visitors" continue to come together at Sunrise to nibble grass and forage in the Birdseed under the Feeders. They have enjoyed the Red Sage & Black Eyed Susan leaves and in exchange produce small piles of brown rabbit droppings for the garden.

Baby has grown quite large now and bursts into sprints & leaps around Mom when she's feeding.

They have become somewhat tame and move to a comfortable distance and continue feeding when the flowers and birdbaths need a drink. A loud noise or the Warning Call of the Blue Jay will send them dashing for cover.

Wondering if they are the owners of the Den dug into the Compost Pile by the Garden.

Saturday, July 21, 2007

Nibbles

A very large wild rabbit has been magically appearing on our lawn for the past year.
Living in a housing development, we welcome the squirrels and birds that come, but a wild rabbit is a treat and especially welcome. It wasn't unusual to hear someone say. . .
"Hey, did you see the big rabbit?"

This summer the "big rabbit" left us a sweet gift. Out back in the flower garden with the white picket fence is Nibbles, a tiny brown rabbit. He looks like a kitten with a tiny white powder puff following behind. One early morning sighting found him creeping out from under the big shed, stretching each back leg and yawning. Then he stood up and washed his face and each ear.

The young squirrels are curious about him and get close for a sniff and once over, but seem to be disinterested and go back to foraging for birdseed. He ignores them and nibbles away at a long blade of grass. His high speed sprints and leaps on his short baby legs are comical to watch.
He can be sitting in a spot and in a flashing split second disappear from view or he practices the "freeze" and sits there staring with not a whisker moving.

Sunrise trips to the backyard to fill birdbaths are now rewarded with sweet "Nibbles" sightings.

Tuesday, March 27, 2007

Baby Robins

Two fluffy baby Robins
with bright orange beaks
sat on the deck railing birdbath
this morning.

One was dipping
to get a drink
and his nestmate
was drying out
in the golden morning sun
after a nice bath.

Brown Rabbit

Yesterday at Sunset a large brown Rabbit
was poised standing on his hind feet
next to the garden's birdbath.
He investigated a sprouting onion
on the brush pile and hopped
around the perennials in the
garden, stopping occasionally
and standing tall and alert.

This evening we will put some
Alfalfa from the pet shop out
for him. Sweet.

Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Newly Hatched

I was just turning on the faucet to put water in the birdbath
and something dropped to the ground.

It looks like a newly hatched
Female Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly.

It was black and sky blue
with dots of orange and gold
around the edes of its wings.

It was crumpled and soft like a newly
unfurled leaf and crawled onto my hand.

I hurried around to the Lithodora Groundcover
just recently planted. It has blue flowers.

It crawled across the plant and up onto
some pine straw hanging off the railroad tie
above. It hung there drying out.
When I returned later it had flown away.

Thursday, March 15, 2007

Balogny?

Yesterday I noticed that there wasn't much bird or squirrel traffic at the feeder. This morning as I was getting gardening gloves out of the big shed i heard a loud buck-buck-buck-buck noise come from our largest pine tree. It kind of sounded like a chicken.

Up high on a branch was a Hawk. I remembered recently finding a clump of bird feathers near the birdfeeder and another day the young squirrel had shown up missing his tail. Have I created a Smorgasbord for the Birds of Prey?

Bird's and Bloom's Magazine says not to worry,,,Hawks have to eat too. OK, I'll just have to quit naming my favorite songbirds, so when they come up missing I won't be so crushed. But what about Greenbean, Dove, Thrasher, King, and Rocky?

Maybe if I hung Balogna from the tree,,,

Monday, March 12, 2007

Baby Squirrel's Tale

As I waited this morning for the first cup of coffee I spent some time looking out the kitchen window to see which birds were first to the backyard feeder.

Just outside this window a large pine tree stands. It is home to Rocky the Gray Squirrel and her two babies. It's fun to watch them come down the tree stretching and yawning to find breakfast peanuts and seeds left for them. If the peanuts and seeds are late arriving they stand up tall and stare at the window. Occasionally they'll come right up to the window and look in.

This morning found them parading down the tree and my head began spinning,,,something amiss. They stretched and yawned as usual, but were in the company of a third baby and it's missing it's TAIL! Not even a stump left. He looks rather like a Guinea Pig.

Throughout the day I watched for him in the yard and he seems to not be bothered by his loss. I would love to know his "Tale of The Lost Tail."

Note: A week has gone by now and today the young tailess squirrel
was searching in the grass below the birdfeeders for seeds. He seems fine.

Tuesday, February 27, 2007

"Winter Honeysuckle"

On our latest Trek to Riverbanks Botanical Garden we found "Kiss-Me-At-The-Garden-Gate" and "Sweet Breath of Spring" sitting among the plants that were for sale. These are two names for the winter-blooming shrub "Winter Honeysuckle" that supplies nectar for Hummingbirds arriving early in the Carolinas. We bought one and proudly brought it home.

It has a stiff form and jiggles in the wind. The flowers are white and frilly with bright yellow anthers arching out from inside. They smell like Lemons and their fragrance drifts on the breeze. The early spring bees have come to do their pollen dance on it.

During February as I sat on the deck, "Greenbean" the Hummingbird zoomed around me and then sat on a Crepe Myrtle branch above watching me. I quickly hung out a nectar feeder, but the baby squirrels played a game of tip it and run below to lick the nectar off the deck railing and finally they just chewed it apart, so I threw it away. When "Greenbean" returns, Winter Honeysuckle will be waiting for him on the deck railing outside the kitchen window. I can't wait.

A Verse written by Joyce Hemsley of Sunderland, England:

"The Seasons have just drifted by,
many moons have graced the sky.

Whilst Winter's Honeysuckle bloom
has filled the air with sweet perfume."