The Wildlife In Our Yard

Our yard this spring is full of rabbit families, twitterpated birds, and hungry, burrowing chipmunks. They are very friendly, though I must say they are all easily startled and a wee bit shy. (We really don't mean to startle them so frequently, but what can you do when you open the door to go to church on a Sunday and find that you've interrupted a very important Nature Meeting causing rabbits, chipmunks, and a bunch of birds to scatter like cockroaches in the light? It certainly does make for an awkward situation.) But we certainly enjoy their company. You might also, so let me introduce you to our outdoor neighbors.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again -- the bunnies in our yard are just too precious for words. There are at least 3 who visit us regularly: a mama, a papa, and a baby. Or maybe it's a mama, an aunt, and a baby. Or maybe it's...well, anyway, there are 2 big rabbits and 1 small rabbit. They generally like to hang out in the hedgerow at the edge of the yard. They prefer eating leafy greens, but they did eventually eat the baby carrots we threw to them a couple of weeks ago. Hopefully they know better than to get into the garden, a la Peter Rabbit, that we planted on Saturday. We'll just cross our fingers that they don't like tomatoes, green peppers, zucchini, or cucumber. Or we can at least hope that they can't reach our garden, which we planted in pots on our porch.

The birds in our yard are beautiful and very, very loud. They wake us up every morning -- bright and early. Here is a list of the birds we regularly see:

• Cardinals -- an obviously twitterpated male and female "couple" have discovered the nutritious fulfillment that can be found in our newly purchased bird feeder, which is hanging in front of our livingroom window, and which affords us a lovely view of their eating rituals from our couch. It's actually pretty tender to watch them. The male takes the sole responsibility to make sure his "wife" is fed. He's the one who flies up to the bird feeder, fills his mouth with food, which he then flies down and puts into her mouth. Either that, or he'll shake the feeder as hard as he can so as to knock down some seeds for her to eat off the ground. Cardinals are beautiful birds -- the males are bright red, while the females are more gray, with some red. It's a lot of fun to watch them.
• Sparrows -- another obviously twitterpated male and female sparrow "couple" also like to frequent our bird feeder. We have not yet been able to identify exactly which kind of sparrows these are (as Blake's field guide to eastern birds is buried deep somewhere in a box at his parents house in Texas), but they look kind of like tree sparrows, only without the red heads.
• Robins -- there's nothing incredibly special about the fact that we have robins in our yard because, really, robins live everywhere. But what is kind of neat is the fact that yet another twitterpated robin pair seems to be working to build a nest in the tree in the front yard. At least that's what it appears they are doing as they fly up and down up and down with apparent purpose carrying twigs and things in their beaks.
• Mourning doves -- these birds are elegant, but very loud. Mournfully loud, you might say. Their call sounds kind of like the sad hooting of an owl.
• Blue jays -- we don't see these as often, although Blake did catch one in a bit of a skiff with a cardinal the other day. Word to the wise: blue jays are mean and they like to pick fights, so it would be in your best interest to just stay out of their way.
• Canadian geese -- these never actually land in our yard, although they fly over frequently and sometimes they stop for a break in the muddy field just beyond the hedgerow. These birds are huge, honk very loudly, and it's fun to watch them fly in their V formations.
• Blackbirds and Crows -- not much to say about these except that they are indeed black and they are also everywhere.

We've known for a while about the bazillion chipmunks that like to hang out on our porch. But we didn't realize until this weekend that they seem to have a whole tunnel system under the ground around our door and front porch. There are tiny little holes, just big enough for a chipmunk to fit through, all over, and little mounds here and there where their tunnels got too close to the surface. Our chipmunks, as is the case with most chipmunks, seem to brandish a form of faux bravery which makes them poke around often, but which causes them to startle incredibly easily. Case in point: Twice over the weekend a chipmunk (probably the same one) found a pleasant shady space behind the front tires of our car, which he bolted from immediately as soon as he heard me get in and close the door. They also like to spend quality time on our front porch, chirping loudly and persistently, until one of us opens the front door to sneak a peek or make it be quiet.

So apparently we have now become Nature People. It's fun, though, having such pleasant neighbors.