Our Neighborhood Hawk

We have had a pretty impressive hawk hanging around our back yard for several months now and I finally got a picture of him!

After looking it up I think he is a red tailed hawk, they are pretty common in GA so it seems likely. He's pretty impressive in size and makes a wonderful cawing noise. I love that we have so much wildlife visit us here in our little woodland slice of the burbs!

Gray Tree Frog

I know it's silly but I get such a thrill out of all the wildlife I see around our house. I know none of these things are terribly exotic but it always makes me feel like I'm living in a jungle to see all the little critters in our yard and on our deck. Today I spotted what I believe is a common gray tree frog in the bottom of a flower pot. I've suspected we had tree frogs for a while because some of the night noises we hear sounded a lot like frogs to me but this is the first time I've actually seen one. I was so excited!

I was careful to put the pot back exactly as I found it after taking photographs so as not to disturb him. I can only hope the cats don't find him!

They Grow Up So Fast

I peeked in at the baby birds again today and my oh my they are growing fast! Pretty soon they will be leaving the nest, it's been really fun to watch them grow. They are tricky little guys to get pictures of but you can see them pretty well in this one:

Baby Birds

I've been closely following the development of the little nest by our front door and the eggs have indeed hatched. I have been sneaking peaks at the babies but I'm afraid to get too close for fear of disturbing them so i haven't been able to get a great picture. Here is the only one that I got where you can see anything at all.

See that grey fuzzy lump? That's a sleeping baby bird!

I finally got to catch a glimpse of the mama bird and I've determined that they are Carolina Wrens, not Carolina Chickadees. I can hear the little babies chirping to be fed every morning and every afternoon, they are so sweet! I can't water my plant anymore because I'm afraid of disturbing them so I guess I am just going to have to let it die, oh well :-/ Having baby birds is totally worth it! I'll keep trying to get a better picture and I'll be sure to pot it is I do.

More Wildlife Watching

Today as Eric and I were coming back from our run I noticed that my hanging basket of Angel Wing Begonias was looking pretty wilted so I got it down to water it. Lo and behold there was a little birds nest buried at the base of the plant with 4 eggs inside! I was beside myself, how exciting! I only hope I didn't disturb them by moving the basket. I've never noticed birds going in and out of it so i guess they steer clear when I'm in the fron yard. I also found some more evidence of nesting birds in the area by way of a fragment of blue egg shell that I found on our front walk. At first I thought it was a robin's egg but after some research I think it might be an Eastern Bluebird (I've seen a few of these in our yard this year). The nest in my hanging basket (I think) is a Carolina Chickadee nest, at least the best I could tell from looking it up online.  If there is anyone out there who is knowledgable about birds nest identification feel free to correct me :-)

Here are some pictures of the nest with all the little eggs in it, it's so exciting to have them right at our door!

backed out view of the hanging basket, you can see how well hidden the nest is!

Raccoon Sighting!

This morning we had our first major wildlife sighting in our new yard. We see a lot of birds and squirrels (and moles although these are all dead ones that the cats bring in) but we haven't seen anything more exciting than that until today. As I was getting ready for my shower this morning I looked out the bathroom window on to the back deck and saw a rounded, furry body poking around in our empty cooler that we had left out there. I immediately assumed it was a cat but it didn't look like one of our cats so I tapped on the window to get it's attention so that I could get a good look at it. When it looked up at me I saw that is was a raccoon! The cutest little raccoon you ever saw! I snatched my robe and ran to the back deck yelling to Eric that there was a raccoon out there and grabbing my camera along the way. I managed to get one decent shot of him before he ran away.

sooo cute!

 About this time Reese (our smallest cat) decides that it would be a good idea for her to chase the raccoon (because she thinks she's pretty tough). She takes off after it and we take off after her, terrified that the thing is rabid and is going to eat her alive. Fortunately it just ran up a tree and Reese soon lost interest and came back to house (feeling pretty proud of herself for having successfully defended us). Eventually the raccoon came down and walked off in to the wooded area behind our house. I will definitely be on the lookout for this guy again!