Nature in the Yard

I've been meaning to post all week. There's been so much fun nature going around in these parts due to the fact that it's springtime and all. But also, due to the fact that it's springtime, we've been really really busy. I finally got my garden in this week: summer squashes, melons, beans, corn, cucumbers, okra, winter squashes. The potatoes and kale are loping along. The cool season veggies like broccoli and cauliflower look lovely right now; I'm just hoping there are no crazy hot spells during which they bolt and produce nothing--not that I'm speaking from experience of anything. We've got strawberries and today the girls sat by the peas, picking and eating. Which is just what I fantasize about (some of us apparently have tamer fantasies than others).

The ducks are growing and still follow us around eating worms and anything else they can get down their gullets. The ducks helped me plant the garden, which was cute, but slow. I'd dig; they'd sit on my shovel and root around for worms. I'd dig again. They'd sit on the shovel and root around for worms. Yeah, just like that.

Here are Mark and Elizabeth with ducks up their shirts.

We also discovered these little guys in our rose of sharon.

They're cardinals. We first noticed the eggs and then one day I walked past and heard teeny tiny chirping. They had hatched. It was very exciting.

We've had ducks and goslings as well. And large pileated woodpeckers. And frogs and toads and lizards.

We have two families with ducklings who come to visit fairly often.

This is the group of 6. There's a group of 5 as well. Yesterday a dog from across the street ran into our yard as they were feeding in the yard. The mother hurried the babies into the pond as the dog chased them. Kip and I thought the dog would stop at the water, but he went right in after them. The ducklings went one direction and the mother made a great ducky fuss going the other direction--actually luring the dog away from the ducklings. The dog chased her around the pond--he running in the shallows while she tried to swim away. And he just didn't stop. She was quacking and flapping and splashing. It was horrible to watch. Horrible. Kip went out to chase the dog away and then I ran out after him. Kip got in the boat since the dog was in the water and I ran around the pond. The mother flew off into the creek and Kip and I chased that mean old dog out of our yard. There had been five ducklings and there were only four in the pond. They had scattered somewhat when the dog came in. They four ducklings swam aimlessly back and forth in the pond. It made me sick. I was confident the mother would come back, unless she was hurt, but I didn't know about the fifth baby duck. It was startling how much I'd identified with that mother duck. I had run barefoot around the pond to chase the dog. And I had run fast. When I went back in, I couldn't eat the lunch I'd been making when it had started. I felt sick. After an hour or so, the mother returned. I was so relieved. She hid the babies in the brushy part of the pond and I couldn't get a good look at them, even with binoculars, to see if the fifth baby was with her. Later that night, they all came tentatively into the yard to eat. There were 5 babies and I was so happy. It just totally made my day.

I know these are wild animals and that things happen to the babies and mothers in the wild. Still, it's one thing if a baby is picked off by a fox in the middle of the night. It's another to see a domesticated dog who shouldn't be in our yard in the first place chasing a mother around the pond in the middle of the day while her ducks scatter. I know, too, that the dog doesn't know any better and that he was probably just playing and having a grand old time. But, seriously, who are the owners of these free-ranging animals and what are they thinking? What if their dog thinks it's grand fun to chase my kids around as well? And what if I sent my kids off into their backyards to just do whatever while I wasn't anywhere in the vacinity to supervise. I bet the neighbors would love that.

Um, anyway, sorry to go off on that.

Here are the goslings. They're getting old.