September 26, 2008
It's finch mania in the backyard this time of year. I've been refilling their feeders every day. The seed pods were harvested from the milkweed plants in the front yard last weekend. Growing at the top of the milkweed, which certain butterflies need to survive, the seed pods look strange, but I've been assured they're not extra-terrestrial in nature. Anyway, the mimosa trees have their own seed pods and they're almost ready to be harvested as well. Oh, and the purple blooms of the Canadian thistle looks brilliant on a grey fall afternoon like yesterday.Backyard tip of the week:
Try harvesting some seeds from your yard. If there's something growing which you enjoy, maybe you can share it with your friends and spread your seed in a good way, right? Try it, you're sure to love it.
Backyard sightings for last week:
Including northern cardinals, American robins, rose-breasted grosbeaks, bluebirds and catbirds. Chipping sparrows, white-crowned sparrows, Carolina wrens, house wrens, eastern goldfinches, house finches. Red-bellied and downy woodpeckers, white-breasted nuthatches, the tufted titmice, black-capped chickadees, blue-jays, American crows, a red squirrel and a few grey squirrels, a couple of different skunks, a doe, some chipmunks, and some bunnies. Also seen were mourning doves, still a bunch of different butterflies, plenty of bats and at least two different types of hawk!
Cool sighting of the week:
A couple... a blimp was seen to be flying over the backyard on Monday! I grabbed my cell phone and snapped a couple of shots of it, then put the pix in a new photo gallery called 'cool sighting of the week' which can now be seen on backyardTV.com. A big praying mantis was also seen this week. About four and a half inches long and very weird looking, the praying mantis hung out and watched us for most of the day while stuck to the wall of my garage. It was as if I had a new friend. I thought, as it watched closely, it's little head turning each time I'd pass by. There's one picture in the new gallery where you can actually see its pupils! A truly amazing insect, and a truly amazing shot, catching a glimpse of the praying mantis like that was very cool!
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