Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better. ~Albert Einstein
Although our home is just two minutes off of the freeway we are situated at the mouth of a small canyon. This creates a situation which feels like we are way out in the country when we are not.One of the great things about this is that we tend to get an unusual amount of wildlife "traffic" right in our own backyard.
We are entertained on occasion by the wacky antics of the neighborhood squirrels. We have looked out the back door while eating dinner and seen deer right on the other side of the fence. We hear coyotes at night. Jeff caught a HUGE bull snake on our front sidewalk a few years ago. I have had to dodge more than one baby rattler while walking and we even had a bear running through the neighborhood several years ago.
But on a DAILY basis...we have bunnies and birds. Birds and bunnies....we have PLENTY of.
A couple of Sunday's ago I returned from a wedding shower to find a visitor. A bunny which Jeff and Keaton had caught. We don't usually catch wild animals so I was a bit surprised that Jeff had allowed this until he explained to me where he found this teeny tiny bunny.
It was under the lawnmower. More accurately....he ran OVER it with the lawnmower....WHILE he was mowing the grass. This bunny was so very tiny that Jeff was able to pass over it and the blades missed it!
We of course let it go. Jeff thought that maybe I would like to keep it since I had just recently fallen in love with a bunny at the pet shop. Then I reminded him that our dog Benji is a ratter...and has been known to wipe out nests of baby squirrels and even entire families of endangered mice.
TODAY....I went out to get the mail and as I walk back up the front steps to find that a bird has built it's nest right on the porchlight!!
I am fairly sure that this nest belongs to a family of finches that returns to our yard every Spring. We always know that the flowers will be blooming soon when our little red headed leader brings his harem of ladies to nest in our yard. Last year they built a nest in Cousin It right next to our front gate.(Cousin it is what we call our bush. When we moved here nine years ago it was about the size of a small child and looked just like cousin it from the Aadams Family.)
We also have a family of Chickadees that nest in our Spruce every year...but they are not quite as social as the finches...and a blue jay that sits in the apple tree right out our back window and sings all of the time. Yesterday I watched as a couple of Stellar Jays tried to chase an annoying Magpie off of our phone lines out front.
I don't know....these things may seem commonplace to you....but I am constantly amazed at the personality with which these little creations are endowed.
