Nature at Work…In Our Yard!

Once again it’s time to share photos of nature’s visitors in our yard… We do live in a wooded area with woods on all 4 sides.  Across the street it’s completely wooded with no structures to be seen.  In addition, although a new home is being built one lot away on one side, we still have mature trees on wooded lots on either side of our house as well as a strip of trees behind us and our neighbors at the back. 

Nature’s visitors are frequent and they come in all sizes.  We haven’t seen any raccoons, skunks or fox this year but our yard continues to feed and nourish lots of nature’s denizens…

This …. Hawk is welcome in our yard at any time!  Something has to keep our squirrel population under control and this beautiful hunter has the skills that it takes to get the job done.

These turkeys were pecking and scratching their way through the woods at one edge of our yard.  They are big birds and they’re frequent visitors in the area. 

It’s been very dry this summer.  With my surgery back in June, I’ve lost the crab grass battle for the year.  The local flock of turkey doesn’t seem to mind what our grass looks like but they do like the fact that we water regularly.  The only complaint we have is that they sometimes really make a mess in the mulched flower beds as they search for a meal…

So what is this little group of turkey doing by the drainpipe for our downspouts?  The young turkey to the right made a big discovery.  One of our not too bright but enterprising squirrels decided that the drainpipes were a great place to hide his cache of hickory nuts!  Gone!

We’ve had families…no, actually herds of deer in the neighborhood.  They manage to keep our bushes trimmed and our monkey grass under control.  This fawn was one of a pair of twins who visited us one day with their mamma… 

This was the other twin from the pair of fawns…

After a bit mama decided it was time to move on… The good news is that they just ‘trim’ our vegetation before they seek out their next snack.

It was nice that mama deer stopped to look back at Laurie.  This pretty doe posed nicely don’t you think!

We have lots of birds around the house too… They tend to be birds that like the cover of wooded areas.  This Chickadee is one of the many birds that love our big rock that creates a pond whenever we water the yard or it rains.

Time for a quick bath… No problem that a voyeuristic wren has stopped by to watch!

I wonder what that wren was thinking.  The Chickadee has a little preening to do, that’s for sure!

We have a hummingbird feeder up for more than 6 months each year… These pretty little birds really stoke up on the sugar water when they aren’t fighting each other over the feeder!

Late every summer, the local Gold Finch population flocks to our cone flowers for an annual feast.

Then we had this eager Wren who decided to build a nest in the newspaper slot under our mail box.  Laurie couldn’t believe how fast he built this nest in an effort to attract a mate… Hey, a guy has to do what a guy has to do!

This buck decided to visit our back yard one sunny day.  He apparently likes the taste of oak leaf hydrangea!   The only plants that the deer have eaten to the ground are Laurie’s hostas.  They just eat the hostas that are in the flower beds away from the house.  They’ve left the ones alone that are up against our back deck.

One last photo of our little buck… If he’s smart he’ll stay in the neighborhood for the duration of the upcoming hunting season.  He sure is a handsome young fellow!

Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them…

Thanks for stopping by to check out our local wildlife menagerie!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave