Sightings in the Sanctuary

I am taking particular delight in appreciating all of the native plant life by using the plant snap app to identify the wild plants I see growing around.  I am looking forward to commencing with planting the garden this weekend, I will go ahead and do the herb garden next week too. All of the beautiful trees in the front yard bloomed with beautiful flowers a couple of weeks ago, and now that the flowers have died, I captured nature’s confetti as the breeze rustled through the trees the flower petals whirled around , a wonderful celebration of the new season!  I am so grateful to have access to all of nature’s greatest sounds and tranquility here at home.

As Spring blossoms, so do the animals!  I so enjoy the birds calling to each other.  Blue jays, cardinals, finches, crows, hummingbirds and so many more!  I have been hearing a woodpecker nearby and would love to capture it one day!  Our bird feeders are quite popular and not just with the birds. We have a rather fat squirrel that enjoys dangling upside down from our backyard bird feeder.  Unfortunately I did not capture the part where a bird came along and yelled at the squirrel and he ran away.

I was able to capture a black crow eating in the yard and up in the tree.

I tried to get him flying because he was being kind of a bully to the other birds, but I swear he knew I was waiting for him to move because right after I ended the video, he flew to the ground.

Our sanctuary houses many critters and while I was enjoying one of our first spring afternoons outside, I was able to capture a bunny eating quite close to me!  He was very attentive stopping to listen every few hops and munching happily on the grass. I sat there with him for about 20 minutes. This little guy must have a family in the area because I spotted a little bunny in the front yard eating at the very beginning of the nice weather.  I noticed him out there again and got a little video of him hopping around out there.

We have a deer crossing in our neighbors yard which pretty much guarantees I see deer every week!  I was able to capture a young deer crossing the road and eventually joining with another deer. The first time I saw deer when I got back, I heard galloping on the street, it was quite late at night.  What is that!? I thought to myself, turning to see a huge group of deer running down the street! It was very cool, I wish I could have captured that!

We also have about 12 egg laying hens in a chicken coop near the garden.  I have shared a few videos of the beautiful ladies. They are quite vocal, and when I go over they all come over and say hi!  I have also discovered they will eat dandelion leaves. I offered them up to the lead chicken, red and she grabbed it up and ate it quick, so I kept feeding them all for a while, chuckling as they grabbed the leaves from each other and knocked each other out of the way.  I will have to make a feeding video too. They sure get excited about food! They get all of our leftovers from the kitchen, corn and feed. These old girls have been around for a while, and they are not producing as many eggs as they used to. It sure is nice to have fresh eggs to eat when they do lay!  

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I look forward to continuing to share my sightings with you as spring turns to summer and the animals come out to play!