Animals in the Yard

It is really nice to have a variety of birds and other wildlife around. From every window I can see the bird feeders and bird baths and for being a pretty barren landscape there is a surprising amount of life. Puerto Rico surprised us with its LACK of living things and NM surprisingly has a lot of life. I don't know what I expected from the desert but it wasn't this. But actually we are in "high" desert which is different. In 30 minutes we can be in mountains with huge trees and running water.

The courtyard was originally going to be enclosed with gates and wire mesh along the bottom of the sculpture so rabbits wouldn't eat everything. I had the wall builder turn one of the cinder blocks so the holes made a doorway into a "rabbit room" where rabbits could freely come and go and munch freely where we could see them. Every one uses the rabbit room doorway - birds, rabbits, chipmunks, snakes. They can freely get in any where but that doorway is grand central station! Different times of day and different times of year bring different things. This time of year the hummingbirds are starting to leave. We used to see 12 at any time at the feeders chirping and fighting and now maybe 2. I had no idea there were so many different kinds...different beak shapes and lengths and sounds. We are also hearing all the coyotes now at night and are finding poop and tracks so we know they are around. All the scaled quail have grown up and the other day I saw 3 separate "armies" of scaled quail marking across the property to the doorway. 35 of them! The horses are still around - at least one herd. It is magical when they come around.

These are the "bubbles" of scaled quail when they were little. Now they are all quite large and they all still come around walking on top of the wall single file!

We haven't seen many snakes despite everyone being freaked out about rattlesnakes around here. Pretty sure this was a bull snake. He has a den under one of the junipers and sometimes comes out and goes under the rock that is part of the wall.

Here the quail are bigger and escaping the 90 degree sun by hanging out in the rabbit room doorway!

How cute is this? a chipmunk eating a grape!

Winter and Smokey eyeing the chocolate mint. Sultana expecting treats and Ghost just giving me his smile.

How many people get to open their door and find baby horses zonked out in their yard? Winter was resting in the snakeweed and Smokey was just out of it. Watching and caring for the animals is my favorite past time. This year there are loads of juniper berries which will bring in more birds. The pond will be a good water source and we will continue to put out feed for every one...