Critters in my neighbor’s yard.

Pulling into my driveway one Saturday afternoon I saw an osprey on my neighbor’s dead palm tree. I ran out the side door with my camera and the osprey was was looking at me like “Don’t steal my fish.”  I stood in the door frame to take these. I was afraid he would fly off but he didn’t. Just kept eating his fish.

Later in the afternoon I saw some juvenile starlings hanging around the same palm tree. I’m assuming these were the ones that were born in the nest in the same tree. They were there for a few hours that afternoon and then gone.  Since then, the dead palm tree was removed. Luckily the neighbor’s waited until the babies were gone. I miss looking out of the kitchen window to see what was on the tree but the tree could have been a hazard if a storm or hurricane came through.

Looking out the side bedroom window, a squirrel was taking a nap on my neighbor’s screened porch. Not a smart move for a squirrel. Too many hawks in the area that could fly by and grab him.

Backyard visitors this spring.

In late spring, I heard some birds screaming in the backyard. I peeked out the bedroom window and saw the above, baby starlings being fed by the parents.  I ran and grabbed my camera and took the above through the window. I didn’t want to go outside and spook them.  These almost fully grown babies were very aggressive, almost attacking the parents to be fed. This went on for 20 minutes. They must have wiped out all of the worms, bugs and caterpillars we had in the backyard. Maybe I should have scared them off.

This was the last I saw of my neighborhood kingfisher back in late April, sitting on our dock. Hopefully she’ll show back up in late October again.

Now we get a lot of house sparrows on our dock.

A little blue heron walking through our yard.

Blondie and her babies came by the house recently. This beautiful cream colored mallard lives in our neighborhood. She usually has 2 sets of babies each year.