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.