83
Time: 3:30 p.m.
Conditions: Sunny and 81 degrees
Observed From: the backyard
Notes: Spring arrived very early this year and as a result we are up to our ears in bugs. There are so many earwigs and Japanese Beetles munching on my flowers that I’ve given up fighting them. The cicadas are singing from dusk until dawn (I adore that sound, it screams summer) and I haven’t seen this many butterflies flitting about my yard in years.
Today’s Bird/Animal Count:
- 1 “herd” of 30 or so Common Grackles that arrived to raid my birdfeeders and pelt the roof with acorns
- 2 scolding House Wrens
- 1 birdhouse full of hungry wren babies
- 1 baby bunny that isn’t the slightest bit afraid of me and is hellbent on reducing my rudbeckias to stems
- 1 Downy Woodpecker
- 2 bathing House Sparrows
- 1 Black-capped Chickadee
- 1 moulting American Goldfinch
- 2 squirrels
- 1 pudgy vole that I didn’t see until I almost stepped on it
- 1 female Baltimore Oriole (I’ve never seen one in my yard in mid-summer before)
- 2 chipmunks vacuuming up acorns
Today’s Butterfly Count:
- 5 Monarchs
- 3 Yellow Swallowtails
- 3 Peck’s Skippers
- 1 Clouded Sulphur
- 2 Cabbage Whites
- 1 Gray Hairstreak
And the grand finale:
- 2 Mourning Doves with obnoxiously-bright pink feet (see photo at the top of this post).