I decided to write a blog listing as many of the animals as
I could remember in no particular order, that have visited our yard in NY over the
years.
Yesterday, dad trimmed right into a white-faced hornet nest
hidden in our Taxis bush. The unhappy
hornets swarmed out and dad ran like crazy.
He was only stung one time but those white faced hornets are
lethal. A sting from them is always
noticed and remembered. Dad got
even. He is usually up to a fight if
properly enticed. Did you guys know that
about him? He readily and hastily
destroyed that giant nest and most of the hornets are nesting in heaven
now. That same morning in the same
garden dad found a pretty cool snake skin.
It is perfectly intact.
Every detail. The eye holes, the
nose hole, the jaws, the tail, everything perfect. It is hard to figure out where the snake
could have possible crawled out of it. It is a mystery. How does a snake crawl out of his skin?
We had two other intriguing and almost comical animal
experiences that day; thus I decided time to write them all down in one place.
A few mornings ago, at exactly 5:20 am, I, (being the light
sleeper that I am), heard a tapping noise on our outside gutter outside our
bedroom. Knowing it was not supposed to
rain, I investigated. I could not see
anything from the angle of our bedroom window, so I quietly went downstairs and
without turning on a single light, ( I only mention this to impress how brave I
was being), I peeked out of our back patio door. The culprit- bats, quite a
few, diving all around the drainpipe.
The sun had not yet risen, but it was that peaceful early morning light
that seems heavenly. I sat with a blanket wrapped around me and watched. I could not see exactly where they were
entering, or what- the drainpipe, downspout, gutter, or siding. I said a sweet early morning prayer just
thankful for our home and yard and its beauty, and went back to bed. No reason to wake dad; he had gotten to bed
at midnight. I told him about it, and we
were too busy to do anything that evening. I heard them the next 2 mornings.
Friday night: Quote from Google +
we had a sweet date
last night, sitting on our back deck at 8, cool enough for blankets wrapped
around us, eating popcorn, and waiting to see when the bats came out, or
rather, where they came out of. THEN, we see one fly out, we creep down
closer, another, closer.... and we watch as one at a time, 8 more come
down out of the corner of our house siding, and fly away. We were about 3
ft from the opening. It was pretty cool.
This was not our first
experience with bats trying to get into our house. We do see them flying freely
each night after the sun goes down, and they do a great job keeping our bug
population down.
Sparrows, bluebirds, and swallows-Oops, we did
it again…
Our children all know
how much I love the bluebird house that Jacob made me years ago. It has been a
pleasure to me year after year. I wish I had the binoculars dad bought me this year
for my birthday years ago. I can see all
the birds so much better.
Pics from Tevia
The bluebirds return
every year. I pay close attention to their habits, and even used to write down
when they came, nested, and fledged. For
some reason, the last few years, some predator has destroyed or eaten the eggs
right before or after they hatched. I
have not been able to confirm if it is a raccoon, snake, hawk, or other. It always makes me sad. And I have not been able to prevent it.
This year it happened
twice; first with the swallows that nested there, then again a month later with
our loyal bluebirds. Darn it anyways. I
felt like an enabler of some sort- giving them a safe home, watching the ever diligent
father keep watch over the nest and mother, and then, to have them taken. So sad.
Well, people tell bird
watchers if sparrows nest in your bluebird houses, remove the nest. They were our third couple this summer. I
didn’t get out to remove the nest, and didn’t really worry about it. The Saturday morning after the bats, dad was
out working in the yard, and I remembered to tell him that we should remove the
nest. He hastily and obediently did, and quickly realized his mistake. When he threw the nest on the ground, it had
5 live baby sparrows in it. He called me over and they looked so helpless. Some were getting feathers, and one was so
skinny and tiny. He felt terrible. Now
we were directly involved in the death of these poor nesting birds. Then I thought, use something to scoop them
and the nest up and return them. So he
did. The sparrow mom returned
immediately, and so far, so good. At least
we did not see her throwing them out or anything. I didn’t have time for pics, and figured my
camera wouldn’t really be able to catch it well anyways, as they were laying in
the straw in the grass.
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I suppose one hint of
what could be our local predator is the magnificent hawk that has been hanging
around our backyard lately. I could not find the photo of this amazing bird, and I have no proof it was him.
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Sounds:
Each summer, we are
treated to the sounds of nature. From
the echoes of tree frogs, to various kinds of birds, they start at dusk and
change throughout the night into early morning.
It is also here I heard my first real owl, and was a good enough spy to
sneak up on one and confirm it was truly him who was creating the unique
sound. Once in a awhile we can hear the
barking of coyotes, although not every summer.
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Cycles
Which brings me to
cycles. We have been privy to learning
about nature by observing what animals are around each year. Some years we have
more rabbits, like this year. When the
rabbits are around, we don’t see the foxes. When the foxes are around, we don’t
see any rabbits. We can even hear the
horrible cry of baby rabbits losing out to the foxes some springs. This is also true of the turkeys, some years
we see them often, some years, not so much.
A side note- we always
liked watching the foxes, and I never really thought of them as a danger. They were
often seen during the day. When our new neighbors across the street moved in, a
fox stalked their little girl, watched her sitting on her back steps, and
before you could say Jack-sprat, ran up and bit her. They called for help, the
fox was caught, and the girl needed rabies shots.
Other years, we saw
the cycles of insects, from the year of the moth caterpillar, to ladybugs
everywhere, to the locusts, and the june bugs.
Some years we get tons of wasps, other years, hardly any. Same for
Japanese beetles.
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We watched an eagle fly
overhead as Kathy was learning to drive and hit the bush with the car.
We had a duck adopt
our pool, and a pond in our back yard from heavy rain.
The deer are a
continual sight, which I love, fawns, bucks, and doe.
With Daisy and Bugle being
gone, we have noticed more animals close up to the house
We have accidentally and
purposely trapped raccoon, an opossum, a squirrel, a skunk, and lots of
chipmunks and ground hogs.
Some years we see
skunks all over, even early evening as we walk, and the smell is observed
weekly. This year, I have not seen nor
smelled one at all.
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Bret sent me a
hummingbird feeder, and since then, we get them yearly. So from the tiniest birds to the most
colorful, we get a plethora of fine feathered friends: a delight to me. I also
love to watch the squirrels hang and dance and try as they might to get to the
bird feeder, now that I have a “squirrel-proof” one. For years, the squirrels outsmarted even dad’s
best home made efforts to thwart them.
This past winter
brought so much snow, I seldom trooped out to my birdfeeder, so I started
putting crumbs and seeds and nuts on my deck.
That brought the squirrels, which I didn’t mind, and I ‘trained’ one
with peanuts so that when my grandkids came, they could see it. He came daily,
and loved his peanut.
I am very grateful for a beautiful yard, porch, deck, and home to live in for so many years,
