Observations by patriciaone

Pretty flowers. Bright orange flower with yellow rim. The bees seem to love this flower. they visit often. They grow easily, love the sign, but not the rain. The almost seem to drown after a rain they are soaking wet & dropping.

A pretty little woodpecker. Visits our bird bath & feeders often in the winter, but not as much as spring turns into summer.
Outside today, enjoying the weather & our backyard.
First I heard it, then when it sang again, I was able to spot it.
Watched this little bird with its pretty white spots drop down to our bird bath drink its plenty. Then up into one of our trees & was hammering away looking for insects.
I really enjoy watching this bird.

Saw at least 6 of them flying between all of our trees eating all the flying insects that they could.
I did not realize that the hunted & stayed in groups. But I have seen them together many very early evenings now, fly around me & our balcony catching & eating many flying insects!

I saw a pair of Blue Tail Dragon Flys. Always loved these lovely things. Once as a child I looked at one with a magnifying glass, scared me bad. Its face is quite fierce looking & looks like it could take a huge chunk out of you if it bit you. Ha, ha. I was a bit afraid of them. Love that they were going around my balcony window and eating all those nasty mosquitoes etc.

We have many, many different sparrows in our neighborhood, hence the Merlins.
Pretty song. Have a feeder and a bird bath, so see many birds.
Take lots of patience to watch & catch all of the special markings that identify each bird. I enjoy watching them anyway, this is a bit of a challenge.
A reddy and gray bird with darker bold brown streaks down its chest.

I have spent many hours waiting for just one bird too land close, so that I knew this was the one singing. They have a different song from some of the other sparrows that visit.
Well spaced notes that end in a kind of trill sound. I find the males to be very bold and are the first ones to eat or drink.

The gulls soar above our home. There seems to be a nice thermal that builds up above our home when it gets hot (we have a huge popular tree in our back yard, often I have wondered whether this has anything to do with the thermals?).
They fly low over our home, especially after the kids go back into school, we have 3 just at the end of our block & down that avenue.
This are quite lovely to watch as they soar, they are noisy, but I still very much enjoy watching them flying overhead. See them often in the school grounds, eating all the food the kids throw away at lunch.

A pair have been back in our neighborhood, they return in the Spring.

I always can hear their piercing calls, watched them many times swooping and diving. Finally one landed in our huge poplar tree in our back yard.

It landed in a perfect spot where I got a very good look at it for sure tell which bird it was.
A beautiful & powerful bird. Looked menacing but so elegant.
It sat there for over 10 minutes & I dared not moved, as I feared it would fly & would not get to enjoy watching this wonderful creature of nature.

They are very common in our neighborhood. And they have young right now & are they noisy!

They are pretty though & very smart. I have done many different things with food, hidden under things, changed places of food. They always manage to find it.
When they get too noisy I shoo them out of the yard, they have learned how to be really quite & sneak into the yard & get some food. So fun trying to out smart them.

Of course most of us have seen these, they are most every where. But today I saw a mother sparrow feeding her chick. She brought it into our back yard where I have food. It chirpped & dance around & flapped its wings until its mother feed him. So cute!

Argiope aurantia; yellow & black garden spider spiderlings.

We watched a whole nest hatch with 1000's of tiny spiderlings on the spider web.

I ran & got my granddaughter; as I had never seen this before & wanted her to see them too. Like me she was amazed.

Lime green long skinny body with see through wings. Quite beautiful. I think that is what is called, I remembered this from a All About Bugs show that I watched years ago. But I am not totally sure that is what this was.
Over the years I have seen quite a few.

Black, yellow & some white & fuzzy. A pair were go along the gras, stopping at flowers & other vegetation. I think there is a nest under our shed. As long as they do NOT become a nuisance, I am okay with this.
They are quite lovely to look and watch.

I have been watching this very young squirrel for a few weeks now; since early May.

Missed it for a couple of days, she is now back. She seemed to have learn everything on her own. She did not have another squirrel showing her how things how done.
She came back today, very hungry. I happily gave her some nuts!
I have been watching squirrels for years visit my yard. I think the one that would have been this one;s grandmother was one of the first squirrels I befriended. I call ed her Popin & she would walk up my lef when I sat down & take her nut directly from my hand.
We did this for 2 years, then after winter, sadly I did NOT see her again.
We have a hawk in the neighborhood, still!
We call this young squirrel, "Bob" as my granddaughter said, just because you are a girl doesn't mean we must take on a "girl" name, So we call her "Bob" & she is gray & oh so very beautiful! I have taken a few pics. May need my granddaughter to upload some??? Ha, Ha. No for real!