No joke

I just heard a knock at my door and I looked out the window to find a roadrunner standing on my welcome mat.  He took off, ran down the path, and jumped up on top of my gate then turned to look back at the door.  The wild life out here is fascinating.  Just when I think I've seen it all a roadrunner plays ding dong ditchum on me. 

Bats

I like natures best pesticide - BATS!

We have an enclosed entry to our front door.  When we first built our house we noticed small bug excrement collecting in the outdoor entry way.  I didn't know what it was coming from. 

Then twice in one week we found a bat to be perching inside the entry way which explained the guano.  I talked to my exterminator and he said the easiest way to get rid of bats is to put in a small night light.  So now I have a sunlight sensitive nightlight plugged in at the front door and it keeps the bats away. 

During the last few nights the weather has been great so we've been out in the early evenings watching the bats chasing bugs in the last few minutes of sunset. It's really cool to watch their silhouettes against a colorful sky.  While we only see 1 or 2 bats at a time, I thought this pic was kind of cool.

While searching the internet to borrow some bat pictures I found the two strange pics below. 

While I think the bats are wrapped up cute and snuggly,

who the %&## is wrapping bats up like babies?

bird head, beak, and spine

The husband says this is gross, but I think it's interesting.  Found it in the garden. The spine was only attached by one or two tiny remaining fragments of tissue and was ready to just come free of the skull.

quail family

Daddy is on the far right, Mommy is looking back at the babies on the other side of the fence.  There were about six little chicks following the parents out for breakfast in the grass one morning.  Dad always keeps the lookout while Mom herds the gang around.

squeezing the bird

Late last night my husband asked me to retreive something from our back patio.  We had been entertaining the night before and a few items were left behind.  I picked up what he asked for and I noticed a crumpled party napkin sitting on the seat of a lounge chair.  Keep in mind it was quite a dark night outside.  As I grabbed the napkin, I told myself that it didn't feel like a napkin.  I dropped it and then tried again.  It still felt strange.  I decided to leave it and pick it up later during daylight. 

When I returned the next afternoon the napkin was gone.  I searched the yard to see if it had blown off the chair but there was no sign of it.  It immediately dawned on me that it was not a napkin I had grabbed.  It was a live bird that was snoozing on the chair.  I instantly realized that I had felt wings and feathers in my hand, not a napkin!   OMG!

Frogtastic - part deux

He napped all day up in the top corner of my front door entry. 
He's length is shorter than my thumb.

Frogtastic

This propane pipe in my patio floor runs to my BBQ.  Last night we found three little baby frogs coming out at dusk to hunt for their dinner.  Here's a picture of two of them. 

Blue Neck and Ribs

My nephew caught this guy in my garage. 

Check out the blue on him. 

So vivid.

Bees

The bees have moved into the floor of the chicken coop.  The enter through a crack between the boards under the threshold.  They aren't inside the coop, they stay underneath the floor.  There are thousands of them.  I'm not looking forward to having to deal with this.