I’ve been spending a lot of time in the backyard with my sister the last couple days. From the time I wake up until after dinner, in fact.
Many visitors come to visit so I figured I’d collect a list. I used Merlin to collect the list of birds, but most of them I’ve seen myself this week.
Birds:
- Red-breasted Nuthatch
- Song Sparrow
- American Crow
- Dark-eyed Junco
- Cedar Waxwing - I keep hearing this cute guy, but I haven’t gotten to see him.
- Golden-crowned Kinglet
- Northern Flicker
- Steller’s Jay
- Chestnut-backed Chickadee
- House Finch
- Brown Creeper
- Black-capped Chickadee
- Anna’s Hummingbird
- Spotted Towhee
- Black Phoebe (I have never seen this one in the yard and I think Merlin is just wrong.)
Squirrels:
- Douglas
- Western Gray
- American Red
Other things:
- Many spiders. Mostly small. A few not small. One quite large.
- So many ants. I found one in my hair. There’s one walking across the top of the laptop right now.
- At least one rat that must live under a big Cedar back here.
I should generally spend more time out here seeing as how it’s so lovely (even with the rat), but this week I’m specifically trying not to give my family covid. My sister came into town for the stitch retreat we went to last weekend and by the end she started feeling ill. So here we are. She canceled her flight home and I’m getting extra time with her which is nice, but so many plans for this week have had to be canceled.
I’m rather grateful, however, that the weather is lovely and we have a cozy space to stay that reduces the risk for my husband and daughter.
