Garden Friends

So, plants aren't the only living things around here these days. I wouldn't call my home a nature-sanctuary, but there are some critters who've decided to make their stead (or at least their regular presence) here, and I've managed to get pictures of a few of them.

We have a shed out behind our home that we use for storage. My husband noticed that something was digging under one side of it several months ago. He assumed the worst (skunks) and tried to block the hole with bricks and rocks. Those were eventually moved - the critters weren't deterred. Turns out they weren't skunks - they were a family of rabbits. On early mornings, when I was still leaving for work at or before the break of dawn most days, I would sometimes find a bunny in the yard. Yesterday, for the first time in a long while, my husband found this little guy along the foundation of the house, hiding near the air conditioning unit.

For the past two years, we've had mud swallows make their home on our front porch. Not because we invited them; rather because they're too persistent to notice or concern themselves with the repeated number of times my husband knocked the nest down as it was being constructed. We finally decided if they built again after the last time he tore down a partial nest, we'd just leave them be. They were back within a couple of days. And so, two years later, we're still host to these migratory birds. My son (12mo) loves to watch them swoop and soar around our front lawn. If you say 'bird' he immediately turns his head to the window and he scouts. So cute.

Just this week I hung a hummingbird feeder from an overhang outside the window of our family room. Today is the first day I noticed a customer, and now that we've been discovered, the feeder has been a hot spot all day. I don't know if it's just the same bird I'm seeing or multiple, as there is never more than one at a time, but in any event, the buffet has been busy. I don't have any pictures yet, and frankly I don't know if my photography skills are up to par for catching a hummingbird. But, if I get anything that's recognizable, I'll share.