My Backyard Zoo

Yes. I have my own personal backyard zoo...whether I want it or not...I have one.

Juvenile Yellow-crested Night Herons
in 2009 in the Backyard Zoo

It started off early this year with ducks in my chimney last March. Now, it's the Yellow-crested Night Herons' turn. Every year they come back to the same trees and nests to hatch their ugly babies. AND every year the raccoons try to raid their nests about 11:00pm creating total chaos in the trees. The herons are not aggressive birds. They just stand on the limbs flapping their wings and SCREAMING at the top of their lungs waking the whole neighborhood. Neighbors come out in the boxers staring at my house wondering what the crap is going on. That crazy lady is at it again. :D

Last night was no different except that the raccoons stirred up all SIX nests in my yard so there was a chorus of 12 herons screaming for 2 hours. I'm blaming the dumb ass "super" moon.

This morning while I was out watering the yard, I noticed LOTS of recently hatched eggs around. I counted 6 active nests and 10 hatched eggs. One of those eggs might have had help from Rocky Raccoon.

They're pretty light blue eggs. Nice sized ones at that.

 

 

So in a couple of weeks, I'll have ugly heron kids running around my backyard pooping crawdad shells all over the place. joy. Thank goodness it washes. One thing we have learned...NEVER EVER walk near "white paint splatter" in my yard. AND definitely...NEVER look up!!! BOMBS AWAY!!!!  I can also tell they are fed very well. Thank goodness I wore shoes for once...there were lots of "to-go boxes" of frogs and crawdads scattered underneath the nests. They need to teach their kids some table manners!

I did learn today that I must walk behind my garage more often. I think I have a varmint living back there. My wonderful yard men have just piling up leaves and limbs and not hauling them off. NOW there seems to be a burrow in there. Any volunteers to find out what lives in there??? Maybe that's who the "Dear Resident" mail is for!!!

One thing our Backyard Zoo doesn't have a problem about is mosquitoes and bugs. That's because we have mega-gargantuan chameleon lizards who are not afraid of us piddly ol' humans.

Backyard Zoo hours: 7 days a week; 24 hours a day.   ::ugh::

Just Add Water

I finally finished my 40-foot flowerbed this morning. Before, I had just made the bed and only planted a couple of daylilies. NOW...it is full of daylilies. Just gotta add water. The bed continues past the faucet and hose in the distance. Can't wait for them to grow and fill up the bed. It will be really nice to pull into the driveway with all the daylilies in full bloom next year.

While I was sweating this morning, the family of hawks came back for a visit. Seems they were on a hunting trip. The kids' voices hadn't changed yet...very high pitched squeals. They were flying up and down the street and back to their old nest...squawking the whole time. Mom just sat and watched with a discerning eye. Next thing I heard was this TERRIBLE squawk and squeals. It seems one of the kids decided to take on a daddy Yellow Crested Night Heron that was proctecting his kids and nest. The hawk lost and flew back to momma. LOL

At 9:00 a.m. I decided it was too damn hot to do anything else outside.

About to Fly the Coup!

My yard is full of trees. My trees are full of nests. Those nests are full of baby birds!!

For the first time, we've had a nest of Red Tailed Hawks. The nest is HUGE!! You can see the clump of leaves and twigs in the bottom right. But check out those "baby" hawks!! Aren't they cute!!! They're almost big enough to fly away. I've been amazed how both mom and dad have helped in the raising of them. Dad has been very protective...and busy.

The nest is over the driveway...which has a lovely fresh coat of abstract art on it right now. We need a good rain to wash away all the white splats of "paint".

This morning I was finally able to see the babies. They were checking me out when I took out the trash. There might have been a third baby in the nest but I'm not sure. The thing is like 30 feet up the tree!

I've seen signs that the Yellow Crested Night Herons have hatched in the trees in the backyard. Several light blue eggshells were scattered all over the back PLUS lots more abstract splat art in the yard. One MUST be careful when going back there...it's a bomb zone.

LOOK OUT BELOW!!!

Who knew hawk droppings could be abstract art?? LOL