Adventures in the Outdoors

[djkimmel]

sort of... One of my daily chores is to feed all the hungry critters out back in our little nature area here in Lansing I like to call - The Kimmel Backyard. Swampy in the spring and summer, almost desolate in the winter.

But look closely and you'll find just about every kind of critter known to Michigan back there somewhere. I mean we almost hit a doe the other night a block down the street when it ran down one of my neighbor's driveway just after dark. Every night I also scare the bejeezuz out of the latest possum.

I do have many entertaining and warm, fuzzy moments with wildlife though. I think some of them like me. They are definitely getting used to... though sometimes the chickadee still swoops at my head. Playfully, I'm sure.

As I write this, there are probably about 50 sparrows out there in the latest shift. A few mourning doves (some whoppers!). The ever present chickadee horde. Some siskins. A few cardinals and of course the fox squirrels are coming and going. And some very persistent woodpeckers.

I write about this morning though. Sometimes when I first go into the kitchen in the morning, one of my littlest and brightest chickadees flies up to the little window and basically says, "DUDE, where you been!! You going to sleep all day!! Get your butt in gear and bring on the seeds!! Especially them good black oil sunflower seeds! Don't you dare forget the sunflower seeds!! Oh, and the suet cakes are getting kind of scraggly."

This morning I was checking out the awaiting horde through the kitchen window and had a new buddy experience. A little curved-billed bugger flies up the window sill and looks at me like, "hi, I'm new here. You the seed guy?" Then the cute little guy climbed up the outside screen, stopping every 6 inches to look me in the eye again. "Speak English, son? I'm trying to talk to you."

The feathery friend stopped looking over the middle sill and just hung there checking me out. It was pretty neat. I almost think he wanted to come in...? (Wouldn't the wife's monster kitties love that!) After a minute or so, he flew back to the feeder that still had seeds left over from yesterday.

When I went out to do my duty, he stayed after the rest of the birds flew off a short ways, hopping from branch to trunk to branch near me just checking me out. Swoop in, get a seed and back a few feet again. Peek around this side of the trunk and then that side of the trunk.

I had to come in and look online for about an hour to confirm he was a Carolina Wren. There were two of them out there a little later. They are supposed to be heading further south since it's cold, and we are the very edge of their range, but I have noticed our little preserve seems to attract all kinds of uncommon birds like the family of White-crowned sparrows that come in once in a while.

So, I have a new friend to add the chickadees, the extra scruffy downy woodpecker, a few nuthatches and the fattest squirrel. All the rest of them are less easy with me though they will tolerate me a little.

Today, I saw the multitudes of sparrows that come in shifts. Lots of siskins. Some thrushes. The fox squirrels (though not the tiny newcomer). Cardinals. Tons of yellow finches earlier (if you asked me how many, I would have to say all of them). The constant shifts of tough little chickadees. Downy woodpeckers. Hairy woodpeckers. Many a titmouse. Some huge mourning doves. Looked like some wrens coming and going too.

Also a beautiful large woodpecker that I am still not sure about identify. It is either a Northern Flicker or more likely a female red-bellied woodpecker. There's also some newcomers that I think are dark-eyed juncos. They are mostly feeding on the ground to the side of the various sparrows. Not sure about ID because they are so dark, they look black to me, not gray or even dark gray.


With the finches, chickadees and siskins, the white-breasted nuthatches usually show up too. They use all the feeders. I like watching them go upside down and all around.


The mourning doves are sometimes jumpy and other times they just feed all over the old deck and ground right behind me. They can actually be very colorful. I took this one's picture back in July. Green on the head, pink, green and blue on the neck, green, yellow around the eye.


And of course, my squirrel buddy. This is from earlier this year. He's a super tubby dude now. I have so many fox squirrels living in our 'nature center' but this one is not afraid of me for some reason. I have a couple more recent pics on Facebooks of this big boy now in his winter weight.

I've been taking pictures and a little video of the backyard menagerie to put on the web. I was not able to get a picture of my new little buddy today to confirm it is a Carolina Wren, but I got a good look later while I had some web pictures up and it sure looked like a match to me!

I want to get pics and videos of the ducks next spring out back. And more of the less common birds. They are always the most camera shy of course.