Where The Wild Things Are

Our yard is home to a wide variety of Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom species.

How many can you spot in this photo?

Yellow - small brown birds (technical term)
Red - turtle doves
Purple - squirrel
Blue - Bluebird (of happiness?)

When the Bluebird arrived in our yard I was certain it was a Bluejay and I was determined to drive it away. I would go outside, yell and throw things at it. Then Lyle's mother corrected me that it didn't have the sharp feathers on it's head and that it was a Bluebird. I confessed my trying to drive it away and she told me that perhaps that was why I was unhappy. I was driving away the Bluebird of Happiness!

Due to consistent raccoon issues we have had a wire fence around our pond. Yet the pond was quite disturbed a few days ago. "How?" Lyle asked, "How in the hell did those damn raccoons get in? The fence is perfectly fine. There's no way they could get over it without making a mess!"

Then on the weekend, the answer arrived from the sky:
So now we have green string criss-crossing the top of the fence as well.

Our wild kingdom is definitely propped up by the welfare system we have put in place to feed the birds. On purpose we got a "small bird" feeder that has small holes to discourage larger birds (the crows live in the front yard). And then there is the squirrel(s). We keep moving the feeder to make it hard to access and yet....
There he (or she) is performing some amazing yoga poses, digging in with his paw and scooping the seeds out. Pretty impressive.

Then there is the whole "circle of life" aspect you never anticipate when you begin to attract wildlife to your little corner of the world...

The obvious predator:

And the very large surprise: