Return of the Little Bunny

I had a post written about how our bunny returned in 2017 but I never posted it because I never actually saw him. I only saw the evidence he left behind.

When our bushes were torn down, the bunny’s home was gone. The boys and I quickly spent the weekend building a home for the bunny to feel safe. We saw the bunny next day, but that was it. We saw droppings in the yard, but no bunny itself.

Last year we saw a couple bunnies, but they were barely in our yard. Usually we saw them in our neighbor’s yard. This year, we have one that has made its home in our yard. We regularly see it in the AM and evening. It is even letting us get close to it and I talk to the bunny.

Now that the bushes are larger, there are more choices for the bunny to hide and feel safe.

The bunny has eaten a coneflower plant so that there are no leaves left. I told Mr. Brigglesworth the other day that it was worth it!

 But the coneflower is now down to nothing, so I am sprinkling it regularly with cayenne pepper.

And lirope is a favorite of all the bunnies we’ve had. It’s usually the first sign that I see that tells me we have a bunny visitor.

To get the bunny from feasting on my plants, we also leave baby carrots in the bushes all around the house. They've been eating them and leaving my plants alone. However, the lirope is down to nothing, so they are still eating that!

We’ve been watching the bunny slowly get bigger.

And I think we actually have multiple bunnies. One evening, we saw two bunnies meet up in our yard and frolic together. We walked to the other side of the yard and saw another one. So there were at least three in our yard at the same time.
 

We saw some in the back yard and couldn't believe it. I thought the dogs would have scared them away. But we have found their favorite hiding spot in the hydrangeas. They can easily sneak under the fence. 

The dogs have discovered this spot. Kates scared a bunny out of the bushes once. That was a terrifying moment because I really thought the boys and I were going to witness the dogs killing the bunny. I just kept yelling and screaming trying to cause a commotion and get that bunny out of our yard! It escaped unharmed, but has not learned its lesson. We still see it in the backyard.

Bunny running while I am yelling!

With how big the bushes have grown, our yard has more hiding spots for them! I think they are here for good. I hate the destruction they cause, but I love having wildlife around that I can see everyday.

Bird Bath

This project is fairly old, but I never documented it.

We had some leftover brick from house construction that was hanging out in our garage. This pile was originally hanging out behind the bushes where we hid material while building and it got left there. I assumed someone would haul it off, but when you build your own house, that person is YOU! I paid for the brick, I keep the brick. 

So, we moved it into the garage. But it was a large pile and mom came up with an idea to use some of it. We made a bird bath!

We bought two 24 inch stepping stones for $10 each and placed one at the bottom and one at the top. We then placed a really large saucer on top for the actual bird bath.

I really liked it. It helped center the off-center oak tree. The tree was what we thought was center until the fence was installed. Then we realized how off we were. 

I still had a lot of brick left over, so I built another bird bath for the front yard. When I went to get two more stepping stones, the largest size they had was an 18-inch. I didn’t measure before-hand so I thought that’d be fine. It is, but I don’t like the way it looks.

The base and the top are as wide as the column. I like it with the bigger base and top. I waited until they had the 24” again and get those to redo it. I plan to possibly relocate it. I am not done landscaping that area, as I am waiting for approval. That land is technically not mine and the city warned me that they’d rip out anything I planted over there. (The previous bushes were invasive and the roots were messing up the wires underground. Those bushes were there when we bought the land.) I understand their concern, but I also want to disguise those boxes. I feel like the birdbath looks like one more box out there. I’ll finish planting some things this summer and then see where the birdbath should go.

We do see the birds out there in them, and that is fun to see. It was an easy project that cost little to nothing since I had the brick on hand. And I didn’t have to mortar the brick together. I’m sure if someone drove into it, it would get knocked down, but there have been some strong storms and it has stayed for the past 2.5 years.

Mom bought some cast iron birds to place at the bird baths. Don't know if that scares real birds away or not.

But we have seen the birds use the baths.

Making these bird baths was a simple project that the boys were able to help with. I enjoyed it and it is something different.

 

Baby Birds

Spring is one of my favorite seasons. I love the new growth on plants, but I also love the wildlife. Hearing the birds return and chirping is such a relaxing sound. 

Mr. Pfitzer has window boxes outside his window and I have plants in pots.

(This is a picture I took to document warranty work on our foggy window! It is getting fixed!)

Some of the plants I bring in during the winter. With warmer temperatures, it was time to return plants to the window box. I was startled to see two mourning doves in one of my pots.

When they left, I saw that they were making a nest. Mourning Doves are known for not making great nests and we saw first-hand last year when an egg fell out of a flimsy nest. I was so bummed. But this year’s doves used the lip of the pot to their advantage and a crappy nest was not a problem. There were no eggs in the nest when we first discovered it, but within a couple days she had laid one egg, and then another egg a few days later. She worked hard on those eggs!

The boys have been sleeping in Mr. Pfitzer’s room, so it is part of our checklist to check in on the birds. We read up on the birds and discovered that the dad dove incubates the eggs during the day and the mom incubates the eggs during the night. I love the teamwork!

We discovered another nest by the garage. My guess is that they are Robins. However, they are a smaller version. Not as big as the Robins I’ve seen. The eggs are pale blue with no spots. 

The nest was so cute and well-made. I don’t know when the eggs were laid, but they hatched quickly. And the little birds were so fuzzy!

This nest was harder to check on, and when I finally got the courage to check, the babies had left!

 

Then we have ducklings at our lake! There are two sets. One momma has 13 babies! We were all in awe. When she quacked, they listened! I want her method! 

We also have swans at our lake now. The swans are a humane attempt at goose control. We love the geese at the lake, but not the poo they leave on our walking trails. 

We received the white swans first and they are just beautiful! We look for them every morning. We can see part of the lake from our house and can keep an eye out. They named the white swans Odette and Siegfried! (From Swan Lake).

We also got a mated pair of black swans. I anticipated them to be ugly, but they aren’t! They stayed in the middle of the lake for a good week or two and finally started getting closer to the edge for us to see. They are harder to see from a distance. The white ones stand out!

 

It hasn’t gotten old yet, and I’m sorry (not sorry) for all the pictures on Instagram about the waterfowl. 

Our Mourning Dove babies hatched around April 7th and grew fast!

You could see their feathers coming in. 

I read up that the incubation timeframe is two weeks and then the babies are in the nest for two weeks.

We watched the parents feed the babies. This momma had eyes in the back of her head. We tried not to pull the curtain back at all so she would not startle, but she knew when we were there and would stare at us.

We loved checking on the birds and watching them grow.

Just last week. Mr. Pfitzer and I were checking on the babies. I always open the window and stick my camera out there, but this time, one flew away!

I watched him fly quite well. But I was worried and mad at myself. We went down to the flowerbed he flew to and saw two doves fly away. Later that evening, we saw a parent return to the nest. But that was the last time we saw the parent. 

The remaining baby bird stayed in the nest until Friday. We were worried. I finally decided I would put some seed in the nest, but once I went upstairs and opened the curtain, the bird was gone! It was time!

Our happy ending came to an end on Sunday. We came home from church to find one of the babies had flown into our large window in the kitchen and broke its neck. I was happy to see the baby was still in our area, but sad to realize he had such a short life.

Our boys really enjoyed watching these birds and we read about them and learned new things. In my research, I discovered they could use the same nest up to five times in the same year. I am now rethinking whether to put my plants in the window box now. 

All nature seems to bespeak the works of God.

Pumpkin Patch 2017

It is becoming a tradition to go to the Pumpkin Patch each year.

This year, our favorite patch had a terrible fire one month before opening day. The fire destroyed the animal barn and many of the play area. The farm promised to rebuild and be better than before. On opening day, they were 80% there, and continued improving for the next month. They will be 100% by next year.

The play barn is cute. I like the new design. You can see through the barn, so you can keep an eye on the children without going in.

Of course, my favorite are the animals. They had some cute piglets. I held the smallest and he just fell asleep.

The boys also held the piglets and bunnies.

There were even some puppies.

Pfitzer was very interested in the animals. He likes them all. He sweet talked them.

But he was really interested in the young boys building. Construction was going on even during operating hours, so while we were there, they were building the enclosure for the bunnies. We stayed over there for a while so Pfitzer could watch. One day, he'll be able to help!

The corn train is always fun to ride, but it was destroyed in the fire, too. But they got new trains, so we didn't miss out!

And the boys like the race track. Mr. Brigglesworth went many laps practicing for his turn to beat Daddy!

I can't forget to mention the corn bath! Pfitzer was too little to really play last year, but he really enjoyed it this year. We end up finding corn kernels in pockets for a long time!

Pfitzer also tried to push around his own pumpkin in the cart. He tried, but was just too little.

We love going to the Pumpkin Patch. We pick out our pumpkins and wear ourselves out. This year, we did not go out on the hay ride into the actual pumpkin patch to get our pumpkins. We cheated and picked out ones that were already picked.

We will see you again next year!