Sunday, May 1, 2011

Our Extended Family with Fur and Wings

We have a small suburban garden surrounded by neighbors, streets and traffic lights. Yet we are very fortunate to observe several creatures who grace our garden with regular, and often noisy, visits.


This bluejay wakes me up at 5am with its loud and not very musical call. He regularly patrols my yard often finding refuge in my huge Cecile Brunner rose.


Recently I spotted another one with him, maybe a couple. Oh well, my peaceful garden will be louder early in the morning...


... but I can't really complain when he is so beautifully color-coordinated with most of my plantings :).


This poor squirrel really misses the tree that fell down in a storm. It used to run up and down the trunk almost every day, entertaining my children.


I can't say I am very sorry for it though because I am really pretty tired of digging out sprouting acorns from my lawn. My garden just isn't big enough for a whole forest of oak trees :).


Many people know that hummingbirds are fiercely territorial. Ours doesn't just fight visiting hummers, he tries to boss us around too.


He makes regular rounds of the yard to make sure everything is to his satisfaction. The other night when we were having our first dinner outside he came and hovered over the table, probably to make sure we were not eating any honeysuckle or lavender.


If he catches me pruning lavender or salvias he raises a very loud racket. I can hear how agitated and angry he is at my cutting down his dinner. He really is the boss.


On the other hand, he is fearless and lets me get pretty close. He often comes and takes a drink from the hose spray as I water the roses. One day we just sat quietly together and I took those close-up pictures. It felt almost like having a conversation.


Some sparrows made a nest in my Cecile Brunner rose. It is big and I am sure they feel safely hidden inside. In the evenings we can see them flying all over it eating aphids off the buds. Thank you little sparrows!


I am afraid I am not so good about bird identification as I am about roses, and I don't know who this is checking out my Rosette Delizy.


It was quickly scared away by our patrolling bluejay, but we see it again, every now and then, although not so close any more. The bluejay is ever vigilant...


38 comments:

  1. Wonderful captures of your feathered and furry visitors!

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  2. Ha! My neighbor was just complaining to me this morning about the dang 5am bluejays!

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  3. Your photos are superb! What lovely little feathered friends in your garden. Thank you so much for sharing them with us.

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  4. What a delightful post, filled with lovely critters, roses and other bloomers.

    FlowerLady

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  5. You are really enjoying that new lens. Your photos are really wonderful. We have homeless squirrels too from all the trees that came down in the recent storm. Your Blue Jay looks very different from those found here. I never saw a bird like you showed.

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  6. Your extended family members are all very good looking. Of course, your photography is fantastic which they must thank you for.

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  7. Love your bluejay! He is a very handsome bird! The Hummingbird looks like a real cross-patch :)

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  8. My goodness, Masha, that's a fierce overseer your property has. I'll make sure to bring my own bottled sweet drinks to your garden so that Mr Kolibri doesn't think I've been poaching on his game preserve. ("Mr Kolibri Sir," that is.)

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  9. Thank you, Bom.

    Jess, funny. I am glad to know I am not the only one complaining :)

    Thank you, Blooming Rose Musings and FlowerLady. I am glad you enjoyed them.

    Thank you, Donna. I was thinking about your post when I was writing mine.

    Thank you, One. Yes, they are good-looking, that's why I photograph them...

    Thank you, Christine.

    Thank you, thibaud, for making me laugh :).

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  10. Yes, they are. Thank you, Tatyana.

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  11. Masha, what a great post about the wildlife that you have in your garden! I am often astonished how many different varieties of birds are visiting suburban yards. Do you feed the birds? I feel, since we do that reguarly the number of visiting birds has drastically increased in our garden and it is so much fun to observe them.
    By the way, outstanding photography as always. You are making good use of your new lens.
    Christina

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  12. Thank you, Christina. I don't feed the birds, but there are so many slugs, snails and aphids that they come all the time anyway - and it is a big help for me if they eat those rather than bird seed :). I have a lot of penstemon, lavender, honeysuckle and salvias planted for our hummer too.

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  13. Love your birds. We just cut down two redbud trees close to the house because they were an expressway to the roof for squirrels who were trying to get into the attic.

    I do not feed birds but I keep dripping faucets over bird baths so they have fresh water here where it is so hot.

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  14. Thank you, NellJean. It is a good idea to have fresh water for the birds in the summer. We try to do it too.

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  15. I love your birds and the little squirrel - their are so exotic for me...Beautiful photos !!!

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  16. Masha, no wonder sub tropical gardening amazes you, certainly amazes me. Terrific pictures of the birds today, I am very envious of you having hummingbirds visit. The American grey squirrel used to entertain us with his visits to our garden regularly. Haven't seen him for a number of months now. The powers that be have declared the grey as a pest which they say threatens our native red squirrel, and they carry out a cull from time to time.

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  17. You've got beautiful visitors in your garden

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  18. look at that hummer...fab pictures...can't wait to see ours this year although not as gorgeous as yours...

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  19. I had to laugh at your description of the hummer. They really are bossy little things!

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  20. Thank you, Dani, klaraau01, Donna and HolleyGarden! I am so glad you enjoyed this post.

    Alistair, I am sorry about the grey squirrels :(. However annoying they are, I would much rather see them than not....

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  21. Those pictures are gorgeous! I'm quite inspired to try to capture more wildlife shots this summer. We have a lot of birds and squirrels, but if I'm outside, my five dogs usually are, too, which makes taking pictures more challenging. Our hummers haven't arrived yet but we have lots of eastern blue jays that live here year round. I also have bluebirds and goldfinches.

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  22. Wow, you have many subjects for photography! I hope you capture some of them - I will be looking forward to reading about them on your blog.

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  23. Wow, you have quite a few visitors in your garden. Awesome pictures! I especially like the ones of the humming bird.

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  24. Thank you, Olga! I bet you have a lot of the same ones...

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  25. Masha, those hummingbird pictures are fabulous! I can practically count the feathers on that hummingbird. And you captured that bossy glare of his perfectly, LOL.

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  26. Yes, thank you, Lois, for making me laugh. That bossy glare was definitely there :).

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  27. Excellent bird photos! I love the hummingbird. I only have the ruby-throated hummers so this is a real treat to see this beauty!

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  28. Masha, The hummingbird really looks angry with you in the second close up photo. Your bluejays are beautiful, not the same kind we have in the east (which are beautiful too). Carolyn

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  29. Brilliant pictures! Your jay sounds like our Mockingbird. Hummingbirds have so much personality. We have Ruby Throats here. I hear them twittering and arguing over the Brazilian Blue Sage all summer. I think the bird checking out your Rozette Delizzy is a California Towhee, also called the Brown Towhee.

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  30. I sincerely envy American gardens for their amazing wildlife inside.

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  31. Thank you, Ficurinia.

    Karin, I love the ruby throated ones, I see them occasionally here too.

    Carolyn, he probably does :). Your eastern bluejays are beautiful, I can only admire them in pictures.

    Thank you, sweetbay, for the bird ID!!

    Thank you, Dona, for your comment.

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  32. Dear Masha,
    What a beautiful photos of the birds!
    And ... as you told about it! I have enjoyed it.
    A garden without birds is an empty garden. The sounds, the singing and chirping,
    belong to the garden .
    "I really enjoyed your post. Thank you so much.
    Dear greetings, Elly

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  33. so what new lenses to you get? I presume it is a zoom of some sorts. Such clear and pristine photos. Love it!

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  34. Thank you, Elly, for your compliments. You are so right, a garden without birds is indeed empty.

    Greggo, thank you. I got a 55-200mm telephoto - it is the largest zoom that works hand-held :).

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  35. Your mystery bird is probably a Towhee, and he's likely to be singing even earlier than your Western Scrub Jays.

    The jays eat snails, and are just as smart as can bee. We love them, and enjoy watching them in our little Oakland garden.

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  36. This might make you smile:

    http://howsrobb.blogspot.com/2009/05/i.html

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I am so glad you have stopped by!