Internet photo of male and female Eastern Bluebirds
We are blessed to have Eastern Bluebirds spending a great deal of time in the yard this year. It is probably because V has discovered that they love mealworms and is mixing them into the feeders. We have waited years for Bluebirds. V even put a Bluebird house, perfectly positioned on the big maple out front, so that we can watch it when doing dishes. Last year a male came and checked it out but never moved it. I wonder if he will try it again this year?
Year after year, the ducks return to teach their young how to swim in the river. Sofie wants to help, but they don’t appreciate it very much. Who taught you to swim?
Every year our Osprey return to mate and have little Osprey.
This is us in 2014 before the bulkhead was turned into a living shoreline, staring at the Osprey platform. Those big birds don’t like us much. This year Mom caught them on video teaching their baby’s to fly. Turn up your volume if you want to hear their little cry drowned out by the 17-year cicada song. The cicadae are very loud but will be gone in a few weeks. But that is for another blog.
I was standing in the yard with the dogs and one of the many many cardinals that live in my yard, graced me with a quiet moment so that I could take a photo of him. The other day, there were 4 vibrant red males in my mock orange bush, but alas, I did not have my phone/camera.
Every year Harold and Maude, or their children or grandchildren, have come back to nest in the front yard. Ducks do that. The experts at Ducks Unlimited say that ducks “imprint information about their home breeding and wintering areas and use navigational cues to return to them. Adult female ducks often return to former breeding sites.”
We have been blessed for the last 16 year’s as we have watched Harolds and Maudes waddle around the grounds, swim in the pool, and ultimately waddle their ducklings down to the river.
Luckily the ducks are in the front yard. The dogs would love to chase them, and do roust them if they fly into the back or worse in the pool, but the front is leash only territory so the duckies are ‘kind of’ safe. They must feel at home since they keep coming back.
Recently, at Ocean City, Maryland, I captured the Piper Plover birds playing in the surf. It was a gorgeous end of summer, enter fall kind of day. They did not stay long. Turn your sound up if you want to hear the surf.
This picture makes me feel simultaneously peaceful and anxious. I love the calm swimming of the duck (or is it a black swan) on the pond, but then all those Koi make me anxious because they are so crammed in and they look hungry. How does it make you feel? – DogDaz
DogDaz Zoo 