In My Backyard

I do enjoy the birds in the garden and I love that we can enjoy them through all the seasons. It's especially nice to see them in the winter when the rest of the garden is just twigs and bare branches and snow.  This year, along with the sparrows and occasional visit by a cardinal or bluejay I've been enjoying juncos.  Maybe they've always been around and I haven't paid enough attention to realize what they were but I've never really noticed them before.  In fact, I'd never even heard of the name junco before even though they are quite common. These little ones often come in groups and share the seeds that have fallen to the ground.  I love them with their dark grey body and puffy white belly.  They are pretty camera shy though so any time I try to snap a picture they are long gone.  Today I had a bit of luck while some perched in our tree.

As I was watching these guys a friendly visitor came by and I couldn't help but wonder, could this be one of the Mourning Dove babies from the spring?  I hope so. I like to think they will always think of our backyard as home.

Bon Voyage!

I wanted to make sure to post my last photos of Annie and Oscar's family. It was such a short time from when we discovered them in our tree to hatching, growing and the inevitable flying away. I certainly enjoyed our time together.

They grew up so fast it was hard to keep up!

By May 18th the biggest of the two babies took his first flight and landed in this nearby tree.

By May 19th, one day later, they abandoned the nest. Here is the last view I had of the larger baby. He sat perched on this chair for a good hour before he flew off.

Now luckily enough they do visit our yard frequently. I have only seen one young one at a time but they are so similar looking I have no way of knowing if it's the same one or both at different times.

Anyways, I wish the best to Annie and Oscar and their young family. It was awesome how they let us become a part of their life for a few short weeks!

Bon Voyage my friends!

The Adventure Continues

A little update on Annie.

Annie and Oscar enjoying a tender moment.

The babies are getting so big!

Where did the time go?!!

Feeding time!

The Adventures of Annie

Last night we had quite the storm. Luckily it was short lived. Darkened skies at 5:30 p.m., so windy, thunder and lightening and rain. I'm not sure if it was the wind that knocked Annie out of the nest or if the thunder had startled her but we heard alot of commotion and flapping against the window and then she was gone. This was the first time we had seen her away from the nest. I teetered on a chair and could look into the nest hoping to see the eggs would still be there and not blown out. To our surprise, there are already baby birds there. At first I thought two but afterwards I think I could make out three little ones.

I was kind of worried that Annie might have injured herself . I found myself looking for her in the backyard. Silly really but I was worried about the little babies getting cold. Three hours later she returned to the nest. Relief.

This morning the sun was back and the wind has died down somewhat and Oscar showed up to check out and probably bring some food to the troops.

What a handsome fellow!

Robin in the "Rain"

It was almost two weeks ago when we spread a blanket of topsoil on our lawn, sprinkled grass seeds and crossed our fingers that we would have a lawn again. Since that day, and probably for days before that, we have not had any rain. So strange for the month of April.

So, I have a new morning ritual. After the girls leave for school I go out and position the hose and sprinkler and water the lawn. We don't have a large front yard but in order to do this with the least amount of waste, catch all the lawn area and not soak anyone while walking on the sidewalk (which is strangely not considered by many neighbours) I have to position it three different ways. It really doesn't take that long and has become a soothing, calm way to start the day.

Almost immediately, when turning on the sprinkler two little robins arrive. I look forward to their arrival and amuse at them skittering in and out of the sprinkler. They are just like a couple of kids. In getting closer to them over the days I'm pretty sure one is a mature male (maybe Dad) and the other one looks like a teenager, though I'm not much of a bird expert.

Here's the little guy from this morning. Isn't he cute? I must sound just like a proud Mama. Well, Mama Nature maybe - at least that's what I'd like to think. It's such a great feeling when you've had a hand in growing something and the fact that I can make a couple of birds have a better day as well is even better.


Annie update: For those of you who read my blog from a couple of days ago you would know that we have mourning doves nesting outside of our kitchen window. Annie is still in the nest (we have not seen her leave it). She is vigourously protecting her eggs through the fairly heavywinds and cool air. And, Oscar did make an appearance again a day ago - although he is a bit camera shy.

Let me introduce...

...Annie, a lovely mourning dove.




We discovered Annie, and her somewhat absent mate Oscar on Sunday night while eating our dinner. They have most graciously set up shop on our large climbing shrubs just outside one of our kitchen windows. They have even managed to place their nest low enough that while standing on a chair we will be able to peek into the nest. So far, Annie has not moved from the nest when we are looking but from what I've read it's likely there should be two eggs.


For such a large bird, the nest is quite flimsy looking. They have also picked a spot where the branches easily get caught in the wind. In fact, we were just about to trim this shrub quite far back because the branches brush up against the window until we made this discovery.


Today it is pretty cool and windy but Annie is calmly sitting there as she is blown back and forth. Hopefully Oscar shows up with some food soon.

In My Backyard

This afternoon I was outside on the patio taking pictures of my jewellery when I noticed a mourning dove sitting underneath our bird feeder. It's a pretty common occurence for us to see this but this time I had my camera in hand.


When I was younger I thought they were called 'Morning' Doves, made perfect sense I often saw them in the morning but when I later learned it was 'Mourning' I always had a strange appreciation for them. Their sombre cooing sound always made me feel a bit sad for them and their propensity for just sitting on the ground always made me a bit worried for their safety.
You wonder if these birds are just so naive that they think they are safe there, confident that they could fly away if danger arose or just hopeful of the world and it's surroundings around them - a trust in the world that they will be safe. Be safe little bird.