Backyard Nature Photos

We were eating lunch on the patio, chatting and listening to the song birds. I noticed this engineering feat anchored between the trees to the right in the photo below. Can you see the spider's web? We used to hate running into them while riding our horses through the woods. Spider's are creepy, but one does have to admire how talented they are at building webs, besides getting rid of other pesky insects. Those that make webs like this remind me of  the children's story..."Charlotte's Web."

Just beyond the lawn is Nature's playground... like these pileated woodpeckers. We love having them. They're so funny the way they'll peek at you from around the tree. These worked hard pecking on the big fir tree that died to the left of the house, that our son Mike cut down earlier this year.

This guy showed up a few weeks ago? He was just off the lawn when I first saw him. Our niece Lisa lives next door, and her little dog Mocha made it clear that none of us want him to visit us again.

There were four of  them. Annie dog must have been sleeping, because that's usually when they come out to play. Soon after I took these pictures, Thumper and his friends headed down to the clover patch and cool canopy near the lumber shed. It almost seemed like some event right out of the movie Bambi. Normally I see them tip-toeing past the house when Annie's inside, or sleeping somewhere outside.

Here's that redwood tree friend Judy gave me to plant many years ago. Jen's horse Arietta bit the top off once, but it  recovered. Anyway, the great event was about to take place. It was almost as though Thumper and friends wanted to be here when the old doe showed up. Last years fawn has been here all the time, but I wondered where the mother was. Evidently they stay in seclusion two or three weeks when the new fawns are born.

Look closer and you may be able to see this mallard female sitting on her nest. If all goes well, she'll have six little ones before long. She sits perfectly still, not even blinking an eye so that it's almost impossible to see her. How brave and determined she is.