Backyard Wildlife

It is unbelievable to me all the different animals we see in our backyard. Not sure what the allure is for them. Last summer we had a flock of black birds that would ALWAYS choose our backyard for feasting grounds. There were about 100 of them at one time, all clustered together pecking at our apparently bug infested grass! The pictures I took of that didn't turn out as I would have liked, it's very hard to see all the birds because of their color and the densness of them. But here are a few pictures I've taken this year of the wildlife we've begun to find...

First, a very pregnant Robin. We had her here for about 2 months. She was always on our porch, maybe for the warmth?? Not too sure. But I DO know that when it would snow, she would huddle by our dryer vent where it was toasty warm. We've not seen her now for about 3 weeks. She's probably tucked away in a nest keeping her eggs warm now, or tending to her new little birds!
We have several squirrels that call our yard home. This one in particular scares me a little... on this day, I really thought it may jump right into our window. It sat and stared at us while we ate our breakfast. Dallen LOVED it, and Sienna was quite concerned for her swing which it was perched just above. I wouldn't let the kids out back while it was so intent on what we were doing.

This picture you may need to take a second glance at... or just look below at the close up...

Seriously? Ducks?? Yes, ducks. We woke up one morning and looked out across the backyard to see these ducks sleeping there. Has anyone else had this happen? I've never heard of such a thing! Dallen was enamored with them, and sat in the kitchen staring at them until they flew away, when he promptly came yelling for us. He was sad that they were gone, but I was happy because again, I wouldn't have been able to let the kids play back there with ducks just sitting there!

We've also had a different Robin stay in our backyard for several days. This one had a broken wing, so it just hopped around and avoided us at all costs. Hopefully it healed and flew away. We do have a cat for a neighbor... We had named the Robin "Bill". Sienna didn't like the name, she thought it should have a "girl name". We liked that it was a "girl" named "Bill"!

Most recently we've noticed that a pair of doves have built a home in one of our pine trees. I've seen them pecking around in the grass on nice mornings, but haven't had a chance to get a picture of them yet. Maybe I'll get a video of them because the "coo" that they make is beautiful. They really are songbirds!

What a wonderful thing it is to have a backyard in which we can observe all of these beautiful creatures! I am so thankful for our home!!