Archive for: blanding’s

Garden activity increases

We have baby squirrels again this year. Once again a female decided to use one of our nesting boxes – the same one she used last year. This morning two of the three babies ventured out for the first time.

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.

Turtles are back again

Tonight we happened to look out the window and saw a turtle crossing the front garden. We went out to have a look and it was a Blandings turtle. We saw a couple of these last year too. This one was smaller than last years, about the size of a dinner plate. Here are some photos of him.

After taking his photo we fed chip the chipmunk and then spotted another turtle in the bushes, this one very much smaller, probably only 4 inches long. He was asleep in the bushes with his head tucked in.

Then as if that wasn’t enough we spotted a toad.

Also, here is a starling feeding young. She looks harassed and they look bigger than her!