Baby bird drama

Well, I thought I killed a baby bird this weekend.  I drove the riding mower for the first time ever, and noticed a little bird flying up every time I passed, and flying back to the same place in the lawn every time I drove away.  And then.  On one pass I saw what looked like a dead baby bird, except it had a heartbeat.  But only a heartbeat.  No color, no feathers, just skin and heartbeat.  I would have SWORN I killed a baby bird, which was very upsetting.  Nevermind that if it was dead, it wouldn't have a heartbeat.  And why I thought it should have feathers when they're not always born with feathers.  And did I think I knocked it out of a tree 20 feet away, and then it's shell broke and disintegrated.  So, I quit mowing right there, but I did finish mowing (because you're not much of a farmer if every dead bird makes you quit mowing), and then I told my mom I thought I'd killed a baby bird.  So we went out to investigate, and I didn't kill it!  It was alive, and that kind of bird nests on the ground which explains why it was there, and I had just cut down all the grass it was hiding in which was pretty upsetting for the momma.  And she's a very good momma, because she kept going back to the baby everytime she escaped the mower blade of death.  And she let us bring her food, water and some grass to put back around her so she wouldn't feel so exposed.  The baby bird had a sibling which was lifeless, but we left it there, and today when we checked the sibling was gone.  Because sometimes even stories with a happy ending are sad as well.

This baby bird is all eyeballs and fuzz.  His skin is so transparent, you can see his heartbeat.

The Dark-Eyed Junco is a ground nester.

Cherries!  I always miss them, because as soon as they're ripe, the birds eat them!

Sunshine!

My momma's rose.

The momma woodpecker.

And the baby woodpecker!  He sounds like a squeaky toy when he's annoyed!

Climate Change!

Just kidding.  This post is all about birds, animals, butterflies and flowers.  However!  I have pics of some animals and butterflies I have not previously seen here.  Climate change?  Global warming?  Some perfect storm of neglect which lets certain plant species thrive attracting certain other animal species?  I don't know.  But it's preeeeeeetty cool.  And I haven't cropped any of these pics, so I got a lot of practice zooming and focusing, as well as sneaking up on wildlife.

It's a salamander!  Or a newt!  I can't tell.

He has weird white stripey marks on his tail.

Milton's tortoise-shell butterfly!  He has cat's eyes on his back to scare away birds.  Scary!

Goldfinch?  I think so.

There's a hummingbird in there!  He looks like a leaf!

I got lots of practice focusing on things that are in the middle distance.

Expired wildflower seeds I sprinkled in all the mole hills this spring.

My bunny!  More practice focusing in the middle distance.

My baby bunny!  For reference that huge red wheel is from a baby toy shopping cart.

And that leaf is approx. an inch and a half across.  This bunny is as small as my hand.  What a cutie!

A Day at the Beach

This guy kept walking away from me.

There's a hermit crab in there, yo!

This crab doesn't look dead, but he is.
But he looked less sad than the other dead crabs.
I think the live crabs stay as far away from people like me as possible.

There's an anemone right in the middle.  

And this one shoots water, but not when I'm taking a picture.

A few merciful hours of dry weather, and I got to keep my promise to my Physical Therapist to take a long walk on my vacation (not off a short pier -- he's a nice guy)!  I wore these silly shoes to the beach, because they matched my outfit.  I ditched the shoes, but not before developing a terrible blister and unwittingly rubbing salt-water and sand in it.  Lucky for me, the love of my life let me borrow his socks for the walk back to the car.  He offered to get the car and pick me up, but I needed a little more exercise to report back to the Physical Therapist.  I took these photos with my phone, y'all!  I would've missed the heron, because I was so busy looking at all the tiny things in the water.  Again, lucky for me Mark was paying attention!  And I couldn't remember how to zoom in, but Mark did or that heron would be smaller.  And those are Mark's fingers poking the anemones.  I tried it, but I didn't like it.  Some of them shoot water, and some of them curl up, not just when you poke them, but especially when you poke them.  And the sign doesn't say, don't poke!