Saturday, August 30, 2008

Look at what was in our yard


Doug had got onto Amber (our dog) for digging in the yard. While Doug was home working last week, he spied a visitor. It's a groundhog that we think lives in the neighbors backyard behind our yard.

For living in a suburban neighborhood we sure see a lot of wildlife. When we lived in GA, we saw lots of interesting creatures. That was to be expected, I thought, since our home backed up to a wooded area and was near a small lake.

This summer we have seen interesting birds. Every once in a while we'll see the Cooper's Hawk come to our feeder and catch a meal. Although we have not seen hummingbirds this year. Last year they were in abundance at our next door neighbor's house. We saw a large numbers of rabbits this year. Doug captured Monarch Butterflies on film.

One year we had a little ground squirrel eating at our bird feeder. We have also heard screech owls at night. They have a very distinctive sound. It sounds like the whinny of a horse. Several years ago while out walking Amber in the evening, Doug and I saw a screech owl perched atop the stop sign in our neighborhood. Early this summer I heard the screech owls but never saw them.

The most amazing animal siting this summer was witnessed by our neighbor. He saw a deer in our backyard. Yes, a deer!! We had an early morning thunderstorm. This kept Amber inside and Doug in bed a little longer than usual. We think the lack of Amber in the backyard helped in creating a friendly environment for the deer to feed. Then a clap of thunder sent it leaping over the fence, through a few yards and across the street. Later that morning our neighbor told us there had been a deer in our flower garden. Sure enough there were deer prints in the soil.

2 comments:

Cathy said...

wow, Ag, that was a very cool picture to capture. Best wildlife I have around here this year are armadillos, 1 snake and occasional mice.
(Not counting birds, which I don't know the species of)

Homerun Hatch Family News said...

Armadillos!! I love armadillos. I haven't seen any snakes here except for the ones the boys handle at the zoo.