robins and turtle and fawn, oh my!

A robin built her nest in one of my flower baskets on the back porch. I think it is the same one that had the nest out by the fire pit. She only had 3 babies this time. I've really enjoyed watching them up close, I just stand in the doorway and look out the window at them.I didn't get to watch the mother in action when they were out back, she kept flying away whenever I walked out there. She would fly away when we went out the door but always came right back.

  

They grow up so fast! The one in the back was the first one to fly!

Vince saw this guy truckin' across the yard toward the pond one morning. I looked it up on Google and it is a wood turtle. He was moving pretty fast, but stopped when we got over there to get a closer look. After we got done taking his picture and left, he started on his way again.

I think he is a real cutie!

     One morning while I was taking pictures of the baby robins, this doe and fawn came in to check things out.

I'm always amazed at what just wanders into my camera frame while I'm taking a picture of something else!

what is that in the driveway?

I was in the dining room the other night and I hear Vince say "Donna, comeer!" in that kind of loud whisper that means 'you better drop whatever you are doing and come right away' tone. So I went!
He was pointing out the bathroom window and he says "what does that look like?" I said "looks like a seagull! and not one of those little ones that are flying around the Walmart parking lot either!"

I went and grabbed the camera and took a bunch of pictures.

While I was snapping away, this deer wanders in....

He flapped his wings a few times, then lay down

After a little while, he got up, walked up the driveway a little and lay down again. It was about 8:30 by then, and getting too dark to take pictures. So I went and downloaded the pictures to my laptop so we could a better look at him. We looked up gulls in our Sibley bird book, and he is a 'Great Black-backed Gull". The book said they are rarely sighted inland, so this guy was really lost! We googled images also just to make sure what kind of gull it was. He was still in the driveway when we went to bed. We didn't see him when we got up the next morning, so we assumed he had flown away. But as I was sitting on the porch drinking my coffee, he came flying around the house and landed out by the garden.

It looks like he has some sort of growth or injury on the top of his bill.

He flew over the creek and hung out over there for a while, then left. We haven't seen him again. I hope he finds where he is supposed to be! We've seen a lot of interesting things in our yard but this right at the top of the list. We had a snapping turtle trying to make a nest in the driveway a few years ago, but I think the gull tops that! These were the only pictures I have of her...

Vince was looking out the window and saw something moving in the driveway, from far away it just looked like a clump of grass, but when we got up close to it, this is what we saw! She tried dig a hole in the stones, but it is so compacted she gave up and left. We never saw her again either!

robin's nest

This robin built a nest on our bonfire wood pile rack this spring. It was low enough that I could see right into it, so I thought it might be cool to take a picture of it every day to track the progress of the babies....

two have hatched!

three have hatched!

all four have hatched! They are pretty ugly.

the fuzz is starting to become feathers

eyes are almost open

it's getting crowded in here!

'are you lookin' at me?'

     I love the little tufts on their heads! They look like old wizards!

after I took this picture, I realized that there were only 3 in the nest! Oh, no, I hope something didn't happen to one of them!

Nope! There it is! Out in the open!

It hopped it's way to the grapevines to take cover. You can see the little feet all the way off the ground.

I went away for about an hour after I took this, and when I came back they were all gone!!

Empty Nest

It took about 17 days from the time they hatched till they all left the nest. It was fun seeing the progress from day to day, it is just amazing how fast they grow! Now they are all flying around the yard catching their own worms!