How about some back yard nature pictures?

[H2oman7.62mm]

My makeshift Banana Guard is working... the resident squirrel and chipmunk are pissed! The husk and 1st petals to open have fallen... The husk and 1st petals to open have fallen freely to the ground, and I see no evidence that the fruit and flowers have been harmed.

 

[BillyTheKid]

Did the first mow of the season. Looks good with all the dandelions cut down !

 

[RT Fan]

The wife found a new guest in our driveway, hanging out in the boxwood planters. A turkey hen sitting on a clutch of new eggs. We will try to be careful so as not to disturb her but it appears that this could take up to a month for the chicks to hatch. A few years back we had a doe give birth to a fawn in the other planter in what at the time was a salvia bush. Deer aren’t supposed to like salvia plants but not this one, she came back the next year and ate them all. She was so used to us we could practically pet her. Not that we did.

 

[RT Fan]

Well to quote Bugs Bunny, Hey Doc, I’m Multyplyin’! Looks like we are up to 12-13 eggs.

 

[BillyTheKid]

Maybe it's turkey egg season.
My daughter just brought home 6 of them from a friend that keeps turkeys. Yum.

 

[Olle]

Pelicans foraging.

 

[grey]

A yellow-bellied water snake is my best guess. Probably hunting frogs or field mice.

 

[RT Fan]

Momma was out foraging so I was able to get a close up of the nest, 14 Turkey eggs.

 

[satellite65]

It's usually a short oriole season here, but we have a lot of them this year.

 

[Dee K]

One of our backyard NZ Flax plants sprouted a flower spike just a few days ago, attracting some locals to "fly on by" for a quick visit:

 

[TPettenati]

Yellow headed blackbird

 

[RT Fan]

So Friday afternoon the poults were born. My wife got this quick picture and you can see one of them over the hen’s right shoulder. Apparently they are all born at roughly the same time and are able to walk within 12 hours or so. By 6:30 Saturday morning they had fled the nest. We did see momma and some of her brood walking in the woods near the house yesterday, not sure how many made it.

 

[grey]

One of my special breed of trained attack deer. They have huge, pointy fangs. People think I'm playin' with the no trespassing signs.

Watched it sneak up on something this morning and run it off. I think it was a feral cat, but it was too fast to be sure.

 

[Dee K]

As the saying goes "It's the early bird that catches the ...!"

 

[ernieS]

My wildcat

 

[Oerets]

In the shadows inside the woods is the Mommy Deere in the first shot.
Second a few minutes later.

 

[TomD62]

This is actually a front yard picture. A bobcat moseying up the driveway.

 

[hjames]

Lotsa cardinals now that I got the creek flowing again ... they love a splash!



Hard to get pix down into the creek - but all the birds are skittish.

 

[ml69]

Pileated Woodpecker (I think). That is a big bird.

 

[satellite65]

It's usually a short oriole season here, but we have a lot of them this year.
View attachment 3767728

Here it is, over a month later and we still have orioles every day. Usually they're long gone by now. OTOH we've only had a couple of hummingbirds this year. Usually we see them almost every day in the summer.