Habitat

Our backyard makes me very happy. On Saturday, M cleaned up the pond...big time. He not only scooped out all the muckity-guck, he pulled the liner, scrubbed it, reshaped the edges, and refilled it with fresh water. Now the birds are very happy...the nesting robins are using the fountain as a whirlpool. Yes, we have nesting robins. There are three little baldy-beans in the nest, and when they open their mouths to beg they look like Baby m trying to nurse! Who knew that all the babies of the world look just the same?

We also have plenty of fat squirrels, wire-chewing chipmunks, cardinals, goldfinches and a horny pair of mourning doves. Soon, we may even have magical re-appearing frogs in the pond...they find us every spring, even though M redistributes them to overwinter in a deeper pond nearby. Really, I think we have a true wildlife haven. Our nearest neighbor has a grass plot as a backyard, with (seriously) not a tree, not a plant, not a weed, not a stick, not a rock, not even a leaf for a slug to hide under. The bunnies tear across his mowed field and take shelter under our shrubs and perennials.

E helped me hang a hummingbird feeder full of sugar water, and we've already had one visitor. Once the coral bells bloom, I'm sure there will be more. I so enjoy looking out the back windows and seeing life in our slice of the world. We're not in the country, but the doves don't need to know that. To them, our suburban "sitting rocks" are just as good as any country rocks to do their, um, spring business. Go doves!