I knew there was a family of Red-bellied Woodpeckers living in the tree on the edge of our lot. I hadn’t seen any of the babies yet, but knew there were some in there.
And then mom and one baby flew down to get a bite to eat in our yard. Mom was getting seed off of the ground and feeding the little one, who looks almost as big as her! It was almost dusk, so the lighting was not the best.
So cute, don’t you think?
Yesterday was an unbelievable day as we watched this Box Turtle sauntering around our yard for quite a while early in the morning. We watched it from time to time. Then she stopped and began burying herself in the wood chips. Hmmmm. (Click on blog link to see additional photos.)
Little did we know that she was going to dig a nest right next to my Zinnias and lay her eggs. What a treat! I’ve never seen this ritual before. Amazing… We first saw her about 7:30 am and she finished up covering her nest about 3:30 pm. Wow! She must be exhausted!
The sequence of photographs is: 1. Looking for that perfect spot in our yard (They like their nests in the sun.) 2. She’s digging her nest with her back legs. You can see the dirt in the back. 3. She’s laying her eggs. 4. She’s covering up her nest with her back legs. 5. The nest all covered up. You wouldn’t even know it was there. Wow!
Box turtles usually lay an average of 5 eggs and lays several clutches. Eggs hatch 70-120 days later, so I will have to put that on my calendar! What an experience!
I saw this yellow bird with a black throat and mask at our feeder the other day and said, “What kind of bird is that?” It was beautiful and one that I had never seen before. In doing some research, it is an immature male Orchard Oriole.
Have you ever seen an immature male Baltimore Oriole? Very cool… it even has a bit of jelly in its beak.
