We have also had the hummingbirds coming and going. This is a photo of the female – not too good, but they are fast!

And here is a stunning moth we found on our porch. He is an Automeris io moth according to Wiki

You can see how really tiny he is when I picked him up to put him a little further along the deck out of harms way.

We had noticed one of the rabbits sitting on the deck and running round it only this morning – maybe this is why!

This is what it looked like originally with the broken steps of different heights.

This mid way it looked like this.

Now it looks like this.

Just need to get some flower pots to finish it off and it is done.

Last week we travelled down to Syracuse to stay overnight as a bit of a break. We travelled down on Wednesday, got our visa waivers done and then drove to the Carousel Centre for some shopping, but didn’t really see anything we wanted. We checked into our hotel which was a Homewood Suites and in the evening went to the nearby Denny’s for supper.

Next day we travelled to Waterloo Premium Outlets. Fortunately the weather was lovely as this is an outdoor mall. This time Chris managed to get some shirts and I got a dress from Calvin Klein which was half price. After a few hours there we travelled back home and encountered two traffic jams between Kingston and home. If we had know of the roadworks there we would have gone a different route!

The garden has been a hive of activity. We now have the flickers, towhees, robins, grosbeaks, sapsuckers all paying regular visits. The sapsucker is a bit unwelcome as he keeps hammering on the metal tower next to our bedroom window at 6am which is very annoying. Apparently they do this to attract a mate as if they get their hammering as loud as possible the females love it – but we don’t!

The killdeer have also had their babies and they are running round the front garden. We have seen three babies, although they usually have four, so we will have to keep an eye out on them.

I cannot believe that this weekend is when our daughter Stacey and her girlfriend Amy arrive. Time really flies. Although the weather has been great this week and it is getting warmer (22 C today) they forecast rain and cooler temps over the weekend and beginning of next week. Lets hope it is okay as there is a lot we want to do.

Here is a sequence of the adventurous one trying to get back into the box.

The following morning he was still around, so now we were a little concerned that he was a homing pigeon who was lost. Sure enough after winning his trust a little more we were able to get close enough to see the numbers on his band. I then scoured the internet for websites for pigeons and sure enough found one where I could register that we had found him with his number etc. I did this on Monday evening and received an email from  the website giving the owners details in Woodstock Ontario. As by then it was quite late we decided to wait until the morning to call him.

The following morning there was no sign of the pigeon, but we had received an email from the owner’s son confirming he was AWOL. Apparently he had been released in Havelock to return home to Woodstock, but had ended up at our house instead. I told him that although he had been around for the past two days we had not seen him that morning but would contact him as soon as he turned up. However about an hour later he let us know that the bird had in fact made it back to the loft. Great news for all. He must have left the evening before and finally gone home. Lets hope he doesn’t end up in a pigeon pie for getting so lost.

We have also managed, with the help of a zoom lens get a couple of photos of the killdeer. Previously I reported that only three of the original four babies had survived, but I am glad to say I was wrong. We still have four and they are now almost as big as the parents. In fact unless they are with the parent as a comparison we cannot tell them apart. I think they will be off soon to pastures new.

And last but not least a photo of one of our favourite birds, the flicker. This is the female and it is so hard to get a good photo of them as they are almost always constantly hammering their heads into the ground. However, this one is not too bad.

The other day we saw our first Blandings Turtle of the year. Every year since we have lived here we have seen several of them travel across our garden. We have no idea where they come from or where they go.

Also I managed to get a photo of the baby killdeer. We started off with four babies, but there are now only three although they are growing up fast and will probably be leaving us in a couple of weeks. There are just two in this pic.

We also have two different female hummingbirds visiting our feeder and one male. This is one of the females. There will be more and better pics of these to follow.

Please excuse our weeds – we grow them especially for the bunnies – honest!

These photos are of a toad who decided to sun himself on our deck this morning.

Eye eye!

The other babies have been the rabbits. We have seen two young rabbits chasing each other round the garden. Know rabbits there are more where they came from.

The chipmunks also have babies as we have seem females who are obviously nursing, so hopefully in a few weeks we will have baby chipmunks everywhere. Here is one of the males we have, posing for Chris in the garden.

However, yesterday we heard a right commotion in the garden. The killdeer are very noisy, vocal birds especially when something is threatening their young. We could hear them shouting and flying around but could not see what was upsetting them. Suddenly I noticed that there was actually three adult birds, not two and the intruder was dive bombing them.

Well for about an hour this carried on and then seemed to settle down. Once again we could see the two adults, but unfortunately no sign of the babies. At first we thought maybe they were being hidden in case the other bird came back, but after 24 hours and no sightings we can only assume the worst – the babies are no more.

The adult are still about and hopefully they will have another brood – they certainly have time as this batch came out in mid May whereas last year it was mid June, so they have time to lay more eggs and have more babies – hopefully.

Also some of our squirrels appear to be pregnant. Their little tummies are swelling and it’s not just the nuts they are eating! So hopefully we will have some more baby squirrels too. The raccoons are also pregnant and we are doing our best to keep them away from the garden so they don’t bring their broods with them when they have them. Baby raccoons are adorable, but there are too many of them and they are pests, so best to keep them away if at all possible.