A new visitor - a sandhill crane

I woke this morning to a loud, strange sound coming from my backyard. When I looked out I saw this very large crane walking around, about 20 feet from the house.

He hung out with me all day while I did yard work.


 Here's an update from a local website - he is apparently really lost

Hope

When you plant daffodils in the Fall, that is FAITH. When you see them poking through the snow in the Spring, that is HOPE.

Baby Bird

Right outside our front door (and my office window) is a small boxwood. All day long I've been watching a small bird come and go from the little tree. After work we went out and looked to see if there was a nest. It was hard to see, but there was a little baby in there.

 

 

And here is a picture of one of the parents (both the mother and father seem to be hanging around and helping to feed the chick, but I don't know which one is the female.

 

 

Box Turtle

Today while moving the field, I saw this Eastern Box Turtle walking toward the stream.

Black and Yellow Garden Spider

I had seen one of these spiders two years ago, near my mailbox. This year, one appeared under the light outside our garage....a great place to collect bugs.

I fist saw the spider August 17th after we had been away for a week.

Over the next 10 days, the spider got fatter and fatter. This picture was taken on August 27th. 

Then, a few days later I went out and the spider and the web were gone. In it's place was this thing that I feared might be an egg sac.

I called Tim out to look at it and he found the spider nearby with a new web. Just to be safe he removed the sac. Good thing, too because a little we research showed that this sac probably contains 1000 eggs. Though I don't mind spiders too much, I would not like to be swarmed with 1000 of them so close to the garage. 

Details of this spider on Wikipedia

Easter Fox

Today is Easter and a fox was hanging out in our yard.

 

And he caught a mouse and ate it.

March 24 - the next round of bloom

Every week in Virginia spring  something new is blooming. This week the redbud (a purple tree) started blooming everywhere. Some of my iris are blooming, the pansies planted last fall are back to life and full of flowers. Wild violets fill the field near the river.

I saw a Blue Heron (#16) and the Chirping Sparrow (#17) is back at the feeder.