Category Archives: Life in Our Backyard

I just watched a YouTube video about a baby hummingbird that reminded me of my own experience with a baby hummingbird.

First, here is the YouTube video:

Now, here is my experience with a baby hummingbird some years back:

Neighborhood children had found a baby hummingbird in their front lawn, and they brought it to me. Since I have pet birds, they thought I would know what to do…

It had all its feathers, but did not know how to fly yet. I figured that its mother and father would be nearby. I put the baby in a birdcage in my backyard, and looked out the window to wait and see.

Sure enough, after a little while one of the parents came and fed the baby through the cage bars! The parent came time after time that afternoon to feed the baby.

The next morning, the baby was gone. Since it was so little, it must have figured out how to get between the cage bars and was able to fly away with its parents.

And they all lived happily ever after….

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Note to my friends: I’ve been taking a break from the computer lately. Spring is my favorite time of year and I’ve been spending my spare time outside in God’s creation.

I’ve been watching all the trees and grass turn green, I’ve been watching my goldfish and my lily leaves grow and I’ve been watching baby wild birds come to my goldfish pond for their first drink and bath.

It has been a wonderful change from the gloom of winter.

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I went out the other day to take a picture of the water lily pads that have come up so far this season. Right when I was holding the camera, a goldfinch landed on our waterfall, and flew right away again. I did not have time to focus or zoom. Dang. This is what I got:

Goldfinch at the waterfall of my goldfish pond

Here is a close-up. I can’t zoom in closer than that or it gets grainy. As I said before, rats:

Goldfinch at the waterfall of my goldfish pond close-up

Around here, I see a goldfinch once or twice each spring. They just pass though on the way to someplace else. I’m happy I was able to get this picture, even though it is not a close-up.

I have a lot of different species of birds who come to my pond, and I’ve tried to take pictures of them all, but the camera is not always with me at the right time.

Some years back, a great egret, a bird three feet tall, landed on my roof and looked down at my pond, thinking about eating my fish. That is one time I did not have a camera with me.

I did, however, get a couple of pictures of the great blue heron, also three feet tall, who came day after day to eat my goldfish…

As I said in this post,

I am having mixed feelings about the magnificent Great Blue Heron that’s been visiting our goldfish pond…

I had mixed feelings as a birdwatcher on one hand and a Pet Mom on the other hand. But, I got some pictures of him that are on that post.

I tried a contraption that did not work. It is called a “Koi Kastle”. Read about it here: The squeaky wheel pays no return shipping charges

Also see this post that has the solution to the problem: That great blue heron is never going to eat my fish again!

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It is icky and rainy today. But, I just download some pictures I took last week….

Here’s to remembering the nice weather of one day last week:

That is my view a lot of the time if it is nice out. It’s also the view out my kitchen window (except for my feet).

My hubby built this goldfish pond for me with his own two hands. I’m a fortunate girl to have a hubby that makes me beautiful things to enjoy:

An Oklahoman grizzly bear… Just kidding. That’s my dog Belty Boo:

Nicki and Belty on morning patrol, checking to see if there were intruders during the night:

Lazy bunnies Cadbury and Miss Hudson:

  First water lily bud of Spring:

The same flower a few days later, newly blossomed:

My goldfish were spawning this morning. I can’t get too close or they stop.

This is the best video I can get under the circumstances. Itsy bitsy baby fish coming soon….

The other plants besides the round water lily pads are the parrots feather that the fish lay their eggs in.

Every fall I pull it out because it gets hard and icky in the winter, then in the spring it starts growing back from little bits of roots that are left:

Thanks for reading this far down….

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There is a rainstorm on top of my house right now. I just took a video through the screen of our screenroom:

http://www.youtube.com/v/lTyGyA_pMOo&hl=en_US&fs=1&

You might be able to see that we finally have some lily leaves growing this season, too.

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