Life around the bird feeder

I think this is a mourning dove 

First of all a big thank you for all your comments on my latest drawings for class, both here on the blog and on Facebook. It is all so much more fun because I get to show you and get your feedback! 

I am sitting on the back porch with the laptop writing this. We got a fan for out here to give us a little breeze and keep the mosquitoes away. It seems to be working, which means I'll get to spend much more time outside this summer (at least in the mornings) than in previous years!

One of the four cardinal babies frequenting our backyard

Our backyard is relatively small, and with eight big and healthy trees it is very shady. Throughout the last few years, Daniel has created a beautiful woodsy garden with oak leaf hydrangeas, many types of ferns, cast iron plants, bamboo, Japanese arelia and other plants that love shade and very sandy soil.

And - over the years, our garden has become filled with wildlife - toads, glass lizards, many kinds of birds, opossums and even raccoons on some nights.

A house finch

Right now, the chickadees and cardinals are showing up with their entire families. The babies will sit in the trees or on the fence and wait for mom or dad to feed them - so much fun to watch!

A very frequent visitor - the red-bellied woodpecker (female)

The red-bellied woodpeckers have a nest in our neighbor's tree and are busy, busy, busy with providing food for their young.

Aren't they beautiful birds?!

And here's the male red-bellied woodpecker

And then there are the squirrels. We feed them corn in a separate feeder, but they also love the bird seed. We don't mind and really like that "our" squirrels looks incredibly healthy with a shiny coat and bushy tail!

Coexisting with the many squirrels...

That's the news from our backyard this morning. I hope you are all having a great Tuesday!

I'm off to visit a few of your blogs now, something I have sorely neglected and missed in recent weeks...