Our yard has felt like a wildlife bonanza recently. Two afternoons ago I was sitting outside, keeping an eye on our quickly-growing chickens, when all of a sudden I noticed a quick movement in the air. I looked up and saw an American Kestrel dive bomb a collared dove, taking out a big chunk of feathers that soon rained down near us. The kestrel wasn't successful, though, and soon a western kingbird chased it back.
Two nights ago, while Desert Boy was putting the chickens into the coop, he ran into the house telling us excitedly that he had seen a skunk. We ran out, worried, but the chickens were fine. For the moment. Under a nearby building we discovered that we had not one skunk, but a mom and several young. Oh my.
Another wildlife sighting came last night, when I was walking in the driveway and heard the birds making a lot of noise. I looked up and saw a Great Horned Owl fly away with a kingbird perched on its back. Wild!
Perhaps not as crazy, but definitely exciting for the kids, was the discovery of a baby robin in the grass. This is the second baby robin we've found this spring.
Desert Girl decided it was hungry and got some worms and tried to feed the bird worms.
The bird opened its mouth, but wouldn't actually swallow any of them. However, it started hopping about and looked better than we thought at first. We eventually lost track of it and hope that it found its parents. It seemed to have a better chance than the dead magpie chick we found nearby.
Desert Girl's insect pets (which change from day-to-day) also have us appreciating the tiny creatures around us. More on that later!
What a great photo of Desert Girl feeding the baby bird.
ReplyDelete