Wildlife Gone Wild!

I'll start this post with a couple pictures of birds, because the most incredible thing just happened to me involving a bird.  (It wasn't a Cardinal though).  The Cardinal pictured above, however, sat in the garden for several minutes today all puffed out, and wings fanned out, acting like it either 1) just took a bath and was drying in the sun 2) was trying to attract a mate or 3) was a baby and wanted it's parent to feed it.  Mystery was not solved.  The bottom pic is of a Red Bellied Woodpecker.  This one is using a special technique for splitting sunflower seeds:  wedge it in the corner of the bird feeder post, then peck it.  This is the same bird I see every year, or perhaps the descendants of the parent who first learned this trick and taught it to it's young.

But let me recount to you what just happened a few moments ago!  I was lying in the warm afternoon sun on the chaise lounge on my deck--just to take a break and soak up the sun for a few minutes.  Birds are very comfortable around our deck, because the bird feeder, bird bath, and water garden are just adjacent.  Every year Wrens make nests in our hanging baskets.  So when I heard a bird fluttering around the deck, I said to myself, "hold still and see how close it comes".  Well, I did hold still, and with my sunglasses on it was not evident that I was a living human being.  The bird, or birds, kept fluttering closer and closer.  At one point I spied it hovering about five feet above me, and thought it was a Cardinal, but I couldn't get a good look.  Soon I heard them hopping on and off the furniture. And then, one landed on the cushion of my lounge near the back of my head, flying off, then coming back again.  Then, low and behold...it started yanking strands of hair off my head!!  I thought "Wow!  I can't believe this is actually happening!"  It did cross my mind that they would be attracted to the hair, but I didn't imagine they would do it.  Well,  I think there were two...as one yanked off a few strands and fly away, another would land right away and yank some more.  Soon, there was just too much yanking and I was afraid they would take too much of my hair away, so I slowly moved my head back to see if I could get a glimpse of them.  They were slow to realize what was happening, and I was able to see that they were a couple Titmouse!  I was very surprised, as I thought they would have been Wrens.  They confusingly hopped on the nearby deck furniture, then the railing, then the roof, each time looking down at me wondering what was going on.  It was simply amazing!  And no, I did not get pooped on.  LOL!

The fish were very active this morning.  They come to me like in this picture now whenever I approach the pond.  Their appetites are waking up.

As for the frogs, have we been enjoying their antics as well!  This very large common pond frog (don't know it's real name) sits out at the upper pool with it's younger relatives.

And now for the Bullfrog!  This is the photo I took the other day, the one where I didn't realize I had caught a picture of the Bullfrog.  This was especially exciting because I had not bee able to see him, he is so elusive.  But later in the day, when I was sneaking out to take pics of the regular frogs above, about half way through the photo session, I noticed a blob on the far side of the pond wall.  I looked and it was the Bullfrog frozen halfway up the rocks, where he had been climbing out of the pond!  It was awesome.  He stayed there like that for several minutes until a squirrel came over and caused him to jump back into the pond.

Earlier in the day I watched as two very young squirrels explored the garden and the waterfall.  It's amazing how just through observation you can learn so much.  You can tell by the antics of an animal that it is young and everything is new to them.  I also enjoy watching young families of birds.  They act like juveniles, even demanding that their parents feed them.

About the same time as the young squirrels explored, two Chipmunks scurried around, chasing each other over phlox and garden bench.  It was almost a regular wrestling match!

Everything in this post happened in two days.  Things are getting wild in the garden!