We had been putting bird seed blocks out for many years, but had never seen anything like this. I’m not sure if it’s just because we never noticed, or the birds pecking it had never created such an interesting piece of ‘art’.

So, after this, we did notice!….It was hard not to notice, because now, every bird seed block that we put out is transformed into something! But what’s weird, it’s not just any something! It’s always a sculptural representation of the critters in Todd’s Backyard. For instance, the next creation was on a seed block out in the middle of the yard where lots of rabbits hang out….

Then, right after Gerti, our tortoise, came to live with us, this is what we found at the seed block that was just outside her enclosure…

Ok.. you might be thinking, tortoises don’t stand up like that. Well, Gerti actually does like to pull herself upright along the wall…kinda weird.

The next installation was created, again, on the seed block in the middle of the yard. It was in the spring when all of the quail are running around with their babies…

Maybe a stretch, but, hey, I can see it!

Next?….

A crouching roadrunner.

Can Peckasso top this one? I think so!

We were astounded to discover this last week on the seed block that sits right outside the chicken coop…

WTF!

Weird, True, Freaky!!!

When the Jacktus popped out it’s ginormus blossoms, Daizy’s nose thought they were kind of awesome! Cool, too, were the bees which were flying about, until they put their stingers in her nosy snout :0

Todd’s garden could be Daizy’s Eden…If no one was watching, she would be eatin’! But those chile’s might be a little spicy and what should come out of her other end could be quite dicey!

Ma and the ‘girls’ think Daizy’s the shit! And she thinks likewise, especially when she can eat it!…I mean, chicken’s a great part of a dog’s daily nutrition, but chicken poop’s even better in Daizy’s opinion! Daizy would never eat these hens, because in Todd’s Backyard Dog is chicken’s best friend!

Daizy stops at the pond when she makes her rounds, it’s peaceful, no one yells, ’cause it’s not out of bounds. The pond is a fun place to watch the fish, but this dog hates the water, so here she’ll just make a wish!

Perhaps the most favorite of Daizy’s spaces and places is Gerti’s Garden where she can touch all the bases… Lush grass where she can lay and graze, baby buns to dig up and lizards to chase. It’s a part of the yard where there’s alot to explore and last week, there, she found something more! The strangest creature Miss Daizy had ever seen, was crawling about…was it nice?….or was it mean? Daizy crept near, with great apprehension, and when it’s head disappeared, she jumped back!…Wow! That caught her attention! So she sniffed and snuffed all around this strange shell, when the head popped back out, Gerti must have thought, “Oh, what the hell?” Gerti just kept going on her way to the grass, now attached to a dog with its nose up her ass.  I’m sure Daizy was hoping for treats like she gets from her rabbits. Just one of Daizy’s very, very bad habits!

So, if you’re near Todd’s Backyard, you’ll likely hear, “Daizy! Daizy!… Get over here!”  Or Daizy! Daizy!…I can’t see you!”, then suddenly her little puggly face comes into view. Oh, even though our life now can be crazy, we still have to love our little Miss Daizy!

There is a sinister resident in Todd’s backyard, lurking among the spiny cholla, who set up the scene for murderous mayhem one twig at a time! Not quite a fairytale, her story is rather gory…

It all started when the young bird carefully built her first nest, choosing an unassuming yet respectable place in a nice big cholla cactus.  She laid her eggs and waited for them to hatch…she was young and innocent then. So happy, when her chicks came into the world that spring day long ago! But, that very night, her beloved children were gone when she returned with food. All that was left, was one tiny leg and a pile of bloody feathers! Her heart was broken. So, she abandoned the first residence and she built another. This time, higher into the spines of the cactus…surely this would protect them from the evil that dwells in the night! But once again, her children were brutally killed, one before it even hatched!

The sites of the first 2 murders.

The grieving  mother’s sadness turned to madness! She must build another nest…and another and another if she had too! She told herself, she will have a child that will survive, and she will do everything in her power to see that happen!!  So she found another spot deep in the bowels of the cholla. There she built a fortress that could never be invaded by the forces of evil!

She finally had a child, who she doted on until the day he left the nest. We will never know who committed those heinous crimes. But she does! Because now, unsuspecting young birds move into those nests and the monster returns to kill again!

And to this day, the mother still sits in her empty nest and waits…. and watches the horrors that come out at night, in Todd’s Backyard.

About 20 minutes later, Todd got home, and seemingly, with his arrival, the snow returned! This time with greater intensity and purpose! Of course, Todd had to go out and brave the ‘blizzard’!

We expected it to stop at any moment, but when it didn’t we were giddy with excitement! We felt like kid’s on Christmas morning!…Like parents witnessing their child’s first step!….Like we had won the lottery!…Ok, ok, I may be getting carried away, but it was exciting when we witnessed the yard gradually growing a little whiter, and  a little whiter!

Little patches of wintery whiteness dusted Todd’s Backyard. The grass in Gerti’s garden was looking particularly wintery…

The snow fell for, maybe, 45 minutes. It never really turned the landscape into an actual winter wonderland. We never had enough to go out, stomp around and make a snowman. But  it was still lots of fun!
Although, I can’t speak for other folks that live around here, especially the ‘snow birds’ that come here to escape the winter weather. I have a feeling that they were not quite so excited about this snow event as we were.

But, I just happened to catch one bird out there that seemed to like it!

Snow, there you go!

]]> http://toddsbackyard.com/2013/02/17/snow-what/feed/ 0 toddsbackyard snow2 snow4 snow3 snow5 http://toddsbackyard.com/2013/01/27/hummazzzzzzing/ http://toddsbackyard.com/2013/01/27/hummazzzzzzing/#comments Sun, 27 Jan 2013 15:33:34 +0000 toddsbackyard http://toddsbackyard.com/?p=1501 ]]> The other morning, my neighbor, Eileen, came to my back door holding a tiny hummingbird in her hands. She was afraid it might have hit her window and broken it’s wing, because she found it on the ground and it couldn’t fly. We were both at a loss as to what to do! We tried setting him in a warm spot on one of our patio chairs, but he just toppled over. So, I got some hummingbird food out of our fridge (we keep a gallon on hand), and tried to get him to drink out of an eye dropper . We were relieved when he put his little beak in and drank up! That was a good sign

So I grabbed a box, a towel and one of the feeders off of a tree and stuck him in the sun sitting next to the feeder, hoping he would have enough energy to get on it. But he just sat awkwardly on the towel, tipping over because he couldn’t move his wing…

He preferred to sit on my finger…

So I put him next the feeder and he drank…

We had spent a better part of the morning with him, Eileen had to go back home and I had to get back to work, so we left him on the towel in the box, next to the feeder. I set the box inside a big cage so a cat or road runner wouldn’t come and snatch him. As I went back to work, I kept wondering what I should do. If his wing was broken, I would have to call the wildlife rescue and see if he could be rehabilitated.

After about 20 minutes I went back out to check on him…

He was facing the sun, wings outstretched. his colors blazing. It appeared that he was soaking in the rays, recharging his batteries! He looked up and in one fast zzzzzip ascended to the nearest tree. Needless to say, I was elated! I watched as he flew to a feeder, got his fill and sat back on a branch.

 I proceeded to dismantle his recovery station, and hung the feeder back on the tree. As I did so, the little hummingbird came buzzing over and just hovered inches in front of my face, chirping! I believe this is what he said ” Thankzzzzzz for defrezzzzzzzzzing me!”

Of course, one of the things we most enjoy about living here is having all of the wildlife that we can watch from our living room or the porch! This time of year, all of the reptiles, squirrels and dirt monkeys are safely tucked away in their underground homes, sleeping the winter away. We lose some of the variety of birds, as most go south, but we still have the quail, sparrows, mourning doves, and the cardinals…

The cardinals dot the winter landscape with their brilliant color!  (I just missed getting the 3rd bird in this shot!)

The javelina are thick and having lots of babies!

But, the baby javelina are good eatin’ for some during the winter…

Bob has been hanging out  a lot!

Although, we have not seen the bobcat get a baby javelina, we have seen him get rabbits! Quite gruesome!  I think the coyotes are more interested in the baby javies than the bobcats! (This next year I hope to get a photo of a coyote..the only pic that I don’t have!) We rarely see coyotes during the day, but almost always hear them at night, yipping and yelping! The other night Todd ran outside because we thought they might be trying to get into the chicken coop! Since then, Todd has put lots of reinforcements on the coop to prevent that from ever happening! I think the coyotes and bobcats have been a major contributor to the dwindling rabbit population! Now, we are lucky to see just one or two bunnies at a time!

Awww…One bun’s just no fun!

So we decided to get a couple of our own!

Meet C-Lo (Carrot LOver) and Odie

They are living happily inside,  and hopefully, we might train them to be good house rabbits (i.e. to use a litter box). We got a big portable  pen to put on the porch so they can go out and run around a bit. It’s a riot watching them running and hopping around! They are little hip hoppers! We can’t leave them unsupervised for a moment though.

Fresh buns  would be delightful delicacy for this guy…

More than once, Mr. Hawkins has flown under the porch to check out our other possible menu items…

Like Feline ala Furreir

Or perhaps just a plain hot dog!

The only other possible pickings we had to offer was Petite Puggle…but I believe that she is no longer on Mr. Hawkin’s  menu…

But Daisy had better watch out! Plump puggle would be a lovely dinner for Coyotes!

Seriously….look at that face! And it’s not that that I have anything against eating meat/chicken….I just can’t eat an animal that I personally know!

So, with no time to lose, Todd  raced to Home Depot for lumber and chicken wire. Luckily, we had the perfect spot for a coop, under the walk-through storage area next to our shed! Todd worked his construction magic and in 2 days had built  coop fit for a chicken queen!

This is the living area… It’s a spacious 30 sq. feet, complete with perch, nesting house filled with straw and a hanging, stainless steel feeder and water dispenser. There are also wonderful floor to ceiling views of  Todd’s Backyard South!

A door under the nesting house, leads to the outside play and party area…

Here, we find a 25 sq. foot, reenforced and enclosed patio, complete with multilevel perches and 180 views of Todds’ Backyard North. It’s also located in the popular Javelina hangout area, so the coop residents can socialize, if so desired. (Hopefully, javelina don’t want to eat chicken!)

Pat brought the hen to her new home last weekend. She immediately took to her new living conditions!

We named her Mother Clucker, aka Ma.

She will soon have a couple of room mates when Pat’s new batch of chicks get old enough to tell the sex….no roosters for us please! Not that we have anything against roosters, but we want eggs without ‘red eyes’! And by the way….Ma has laid an egg everyday since she’s lived here! In fact, this morning we will be having them for breakfast! Good thing that she is going to do some work for her rent! This thing cost us a small fortune! Although it’s going to take a LOT of eggs to pay this off. But, of course, we do get more than just eggs from our new, dare I say, pet…There is huge entertainment value in talking to a chicken…”Baaahck Bahck Baaaaahck?” And she talks Baaaahck to you!  The only draw baaahck I see in having a chicken…

Uuuuughhhh! Mother Clucker!!!!

Sometimes he’s rather hard to spot, but luckily we spied him, spying us!

Once he realized he had been discovered, he casually got up and strolled into view, as if to show off his superior status as king of the desert! Such a gorgeous creature! He was obviously not too concerned that I was following him with my camera, clicking away, trying to get a good shot!

Feeling like the paparazzi, my excitement grew that he posing for me! I called out to him, “Here kitty kitty!”  His stubby tail flicked and he turned around and looked at me like, hmmmm really? For a minute, I thought he might actually come! Then I thought OMG, what would I do if he did?

But, of course, cats will be cats, or kings will be kings, and with a flip of his tail he turned his back and I was dismissed.

And off he strolled, back into his desert kingdom, hopefully to be seen again, another day.

This morning we were  horribly distressed to hear from our neighbor, that a bobcat was dead in the road, hit by a car! He and Todd went to get it out of the road. Upon their return, I was somewhat relieved to find out it was NOT this cat, but a younger, much smaller cat. Still, we are so saddened to see this happen!  Be safe Bob!

Yesterday afternoon, we were on the porch with family and friends, when a familiar face (and ear) showed up. He was out under the bird feeder, busy snuffling up birdseed that had fallen to the ground. Then he plopped down in his usual spot, just off of the porch. (About 25 ft.)

He looked a little grayer, and a little more grizzled, but he still had a smile on his face. A few moments later, his family emerged from the bushes to join him, which is usually the routine. Jairy makes sure that he’s brought his buddies to friendly territory before the rest follow! But, this time we got a little surprise!

Meet Jairy Jr.

We have seen this group with babies before, but they always keep the babies well away from the house, so this was a treat to get to see one of these cute little critters this close. I’m pretty sure that Jairy Jr.’s mom is one of last year’s  ’3 little pigs’. They were unusually friendly and inquisitive. Once, one came right up and put her snout on my leg! If this one is now, a proud mommy, I guess she wanted to show off her little bundle of joy. And in doing so, literally brought him/her right up to the porch! (2 ft.)

We were delighted to watch the little guy explore his surroundings, until it looked like mom wanted to come right up ON the porch…

(Notice her friend in the back going “what the ‘F’ are you doing!”)

At this point we had to shoo them away. Jairy moved  his family to his favorite shady mesquite hangout where they lounged under the bird feeder for about 1/2 hour while mom fed the baby. Then, they made their little single file and marched on.

If this is any indication of  things to come…

Yikes!