I
went out to water the little backyard this morning and looked up to
see this, just bold as you please, hanging out, checking out the
neighborhood...
I
have two birdhouses up on 2x4s attached to the fence so I turned to
look at the other one and sure enough...
In
case you can't tell what those are, they're tree frogs. I don't think
birds have ever nested in either of those bird houses, at least not
that I've noticed, so squatters moved in. The pictures are at high
zoom so not so clear, especially the second one since that one was
very shy and at the least movement would duck back and out of sight.
It took me three tries to sneak up on it to get a picture.
A
week ago when reinstalling the toilet was eminent I set about to
clean it since it had been sitting outside the back door for 10
months and when I took the top off the tank to see if there was water
in there I found this one making itself at home...
When
I finished watering and went to hang up the nozzle (I hook it on a
small branch of the shrubby tree thing next to the faucet) I noticed
this...
I
haven't seen one of these since we bought this place. This property
had been vacant for a year and the first time we came out to look at
it big banana spiders were everywhere. The next year we had a few and
then after that, none so I was very surprised to see this one just
after Ms Moon and I talked about sending me an egg case since she has
lots of them. This one is little, body less than an inch, so it's
either a young female or a male.
A
couple of days after I returned from my trip to Portugal I looked out
the glass in the back door and saw this red shouldered hawk on the
fence scrutinizing the turtle pond with its fishy denizens (also high
magnification as I was shooting through the glass in the back door).
I
guess it figured they were more trouble than they were worth because
it flew off after a while.
On
the way back from the art festival we passed a vendor selling
Fredericksburg peaches so we stopped and bought some. Fredericksburg
is a small town in the hill country.
And
finally, it's July and right on schedule the pecan trees are dropping
immature fruit. These are all an inch or less. We haven't had a decent harvest for three years so I
was hoping for a good one this year since we've been getting rain. It
remains to be seen.
Some of the most interesting things happen in our own backyard. My Retired Man and I find joy with the animals and creatures that share our little space in this world.
ReplyDeleteThat hawk picture could easily have been taken in my back yard except that the hawk would have been looking at the chicken house, not a fish pond.
ReplyDeleteAnd Mr. Moon found a huge tree frog in his shower yesterday! But I've never seen one in a bird house. I have found them under the rim of my upside down mop buckets though.
For you and for me- so much nature!
Also? How lovely to see your spider! I'm sure she's a female. The males are tiny.
ReplyDeleteI actually love the idea of tree frogs (in the birdhouse) better than birds! LOL But spiders...YUCK. I attest spiders.
ReplyDeleteI can handle frogs, and the peaches look great, but that banana spider reminded me why I like living in the North.
ReplyDeleteLoving your frogs and spider, would love also for my house to smell like a bowl full of peaches.
ReplyDeleteOpportunists! I hadn't seen one in ages (can hear them perfectly well), and then, this morning, I was standing by a sapling and BINGO! It chirruped and I nearly jumped out of my skin. While I respect spiders, I admit to being a little queasy around them. Our sweet corn is finally appearing at markets, so things are looking up. That's my favorite part of summer.
ReplyDeleteJust had a few wonderful peaches yesterday worried I may have left them too long while in the hospital, but they waited for me. That spider is real cool, hopefully not a biter. Many don't bother us, only 3 here that will always.
ReplyDeleteFrogs of all sorts freak me out. They fall right behind rodents on my very short list of phobias. Once, when she was 5, my daughter waded thigh deep into a pond and fished out a handful of baby frogs and ran over to show me them looking rather surprised in her palm. I yelped and leaped away. My husband said, please don't pass on your irrational fears to our children. I don't think I complied but it turns out our kids are made of studier stuff.
ReplyDeleteLots of interesting wildlife! I have never seen frogs hang out like that in a birdhouse. Funny!
ReplyDelete