Wildlife From My Backyard Window
Living in the country has always been a dream of mine. My husband and I moved here 28 years ago and we have been feeding the birds the entire time. We get a huge variety of birds and I do not have pictures of them all. Most of the pictures below I took in the past few days from inside my house, through the window and with my phone camera so please don’t judge the quality of my pictures. Yes it is time to buy a new seed feeder too, however, the birds don’t seem to mind!
The first thing I see out my backyard window is this pond I put in with Koi size Goldfish. Most of my goldfish have been eaten by the Blue Heron and Egret that love to visit for breakfast, I have 5 fish remaining that are about 7 – 8 years old. I leave the fish in the pond all year long. In the winter I put an air stone in to keep the water from freezing and so the fish can breathe. I do not feed the fish from mid October until April because they are hibernating.
A Swallowtail Butterfly is always a welcome sight. If you have never planted a butterfly bush you should.
This Hawk was injured and was sitting on the steps to our front porch. After we caught it we took it to a rehabilitation center a few miles from our house.
Snakes love to visit and the snake that shed this skin left it for me under a downspout extension.
Hummingbirds come every year and they eat out of the Oriole feeders too. Once the Orioles leave, I change over to Hummingbird feeders to help keep the wasps from getting into the feeder. I make my own Hummingbird and Oriole food which is just 1/4 cup granulated sugar to 1 cup water. The mixture is boiled and then cooled to kill any bacteria. Coloring the water red is not necessarily as the red food coloring is not good for the birds and they will eat from the feeder anyway. My Orioles always leave by summer but the Hummingbirds stay until early October.
We get Egrets and Blue Herons every year at our pond.
My poor husband found this hornets nest in our apple tree when they attacked him while cutting the grass!
The Blue Jay wasn’t happy that the Red-Bellied Woodpecker was in his Spot.
I was picking blueberries when this fawn came to visit. Mama was no where to be seen.
My husband found this hawk dead in our yard. It probably was hit by a car.
The Oriole tells me when the food is gone! The other birds that eat the seed do the same thing only they will tap on the window too. The only time they do this is when the need food.
The Bluebird surprised me by showing up early and before I could get the screens up.
We get frogs in the pond too. In this picture I had a net over the pond to keep the Blue Heron and Egret from eating my fish.
The Robins are one of the first birds to migrate here. Our lawn is full of worms which they love. My granddaughter took this picture for me as the Robins don’t come close to the house.
A male Cardinal coming in for a landing with the Grosbeak.
The female Cardinal is here all year long along with the male.
A male Goldfinch just checking out the other birds.
The Female Cardinal, House Finch and Morning Dove look like they are waiting for the door to open!
A female Goldfinch drinking from the Oriole feeder. They also eat the oranges and grape jelly on the other Oriole feeder.
The Grackle birds scare all the other birds away and throw the seeds everywhere.
Blue Jays are here all year long.
Getting mooned by one Oriole, while a male is on the back of the feeder. You can see him through the glass.
The Orioles and Gold Finches actually get along.
I have a migration of Orioles that come every year. I put 3 feeders out a week before they migrate here. That way I make sure they nest here. I go through multiple jars of grape jelly and 1 orange every other day.
House Sparrows seem to come in groups.
Morning Doves love to sit here.
The Female Orioles are so dark this year.
This Red Headed Woodpecker surprised me by showing up for the first time ever this year.
Last but not least is my nightmare since moving in here. The ugliest looking thing on our 2-1/2 acres. The Moles have done so much damage to our yard, asparagus, rhubarb, blueberries, strawberries and the entire vegetable garden every year. They make tunnels under the ground digging through all our fruit and vegetable plants which dries out the roots and kills the plants. We do not spray our yard so we have grubs and tons of worms that the Moles love to eat. I killed this one in early spring by sticking a smoke bomb in an active tunnel. The next day this is what I found.
Thank you for sharing our backyard with me. Being stuck at home is never boring at our house, it is like living at the Metro Parks. Of course we have the typical skunk, squirrels, opossum, raccoons, woodchucks and more but most of them come out at night and I do not have pictures of them.
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Lovely!
Thanks Jo!
You are so lucky – such a variety of wildlife.
I know and I appreciate every day they are here. I was so mad because the cow bird showed up the same day I did my post. I was wanting a picture because of the story behind them. The mother lays an egg in another birds nest. When the chick hatches it kicks the other baby birds to their death and then continues to be fed by the adoptive mom. Have a great week!
Wow, that sounds a bit brutal! You too.
Whoa! You have such an incredible variety of wildlife, especially birds. Awesome!
I loved your story about the birds tapping on your window when they’re out of seeds. They’re much smarter than I gave them credit for.
Thanks and you know what? Tapping on the window works! We actually feel guilty and go right out to feed them….lol
Wow What a wonderful backyard! That is so awesome seeing all that wildlife. I would love it there !
Thank you! I don’t mind staying at home ever…lol
Oh my! Your backyard is beautiful!! I think the picture of the hawk is my favorite. And we had a bit of a problem with moles, but our dachshund came to the rescue. Have a nice day Diane! <3 (:
Thanks so much!!
Your Welcome!
What beauties! I enjoyed your yard tour very much – it’s great!
Thank you Pam!!
That spiderweb is gorgeous. That’s so sad about the one hawk hit by a car, but thank you for helping the other one ♥ Humans have caused so many problems for wildlife, but we’re also the solution.
Yes it was sad. What a beautiful bird!
You have my dream garden! So many beautiful creatures.
It took many years to build to what nature we get. We planted numerous blue spruce trees which are huge now. The birds love to nest in them.
A very worth enterprise!
Thanks!
How lovely to have such an array of wildlife around… Shame about the hawk.
Yes it was such a beautiful bird. Thank you Kevin.
Oh, I would love to live in the country one day. It’s absolutely beautiful!
The pics are amazing, Diane! I loved them!🌸💞
Thank you so much Jess. Moving here 27 years ago was the best decision we made.
I’m so glad to hear that. 🙂
This is absolutely breathtaking! Please do more, I love reading every word
Thank you so much!
Amazing captures and thank you for sharing the sceneries of the backyard !! Stay blessed !! 🌹
Thank you and you’re welcome! 🌷❤️🌹
What a beautiful space you have! So many critters to observe and capture. We have a fraction of your space… and so enjoy watching the critters that venture into our yard.
Thank you, there is nothing like nature no matter how big or small a yard is. If you feed them, they will come!
What amazing pictures Diane. How wonderful to see all the beauty nature has to offer. I am not big on moles, but luckily we don’t get them. I do have grubs as well and the skunks enjoy them, fortunately they move on to the bush to live, not in the yard.
Yes they dig holes in our yard as well. One year I was cutting the grass behind our row of evergreen trees and up ahead was a family of baby skunks!. I never saw the mother because I shut the mower down and went inside…lol We saw a racoon by our bird feeder in the post on our night camera from last night that we have outside. Thank you Carla!
Wow, like living in your own little forest.
There is definitely a lot of nature here.
This is beautiful ❤️❤️
I have a wildlife blog… Do check it out and show show some love
Thank you and I love your site! I even followed you, can’t wait to see more.
How I wish I have such a wonderful backyard like you 🙂 well capture !
Thank you so much! I don’t think we will ever move unless we can’t take care of it. We have 2-1/2 acres and it is a lot of work but a labor of love. We have eliminated a lot of work already by cutting down old fruit trees that didn’t didn’t produce well. Picking up fruit that falls is a back breaking task. We took down 8 fruit trees!