Recent Visitors (nearly Wordless Wednesday)

We live on a wooded lot in the middle of a city. It's great because my kids get to enjoy nature and I get to have a grocery store within five minutes. I love looking out all our back windows and seeing trees, especially in the spring after the long, gray winter. But the best part of where we live are the visitors -- my kids would rave about all the bugs and snakes, but I really prefer the winged variety. I'm not sure what this little guy is, but isn't he lovely? Sarah saw him first and insisted I get a picture of him. And isn't this guy regal? This is the same branch as the photo above, just taken from a different angle. I really hope this predator doesn't eat beautifully colored yellow and red birds. Our other winged visitors arrived by mail in the form of caterpillars. We bought Sarah a butterfly pavilion for Christmas this year and she was thrilled when it got warm enough to order her little caterpillars. The ugly little things grew really fast, made chrysalises and emerged as painted lady butterflies the same week Katie was born. We let them go this past Saturday. Sarah was unhappy about parting with them at first, until she was able to see how happy they were flying away.

Comments

Montserrat said…
The yellow bird is a male Western Tanager. They eat bees. Lovely, aren't they?
Mary said…
Nothing is quite as beautiful as nature. God did such a great job. I know he is happy when we look at an appreciate his gifts.
Handsfullmom said…
Thanks for identifying the bird -- I was hoping someone would know what he was.
Norah said…
Looks like someone already id'd the western tanager bird. We had our first one yesterday. We feed the wild birds and have so many pretty ones. My boys love watching for them and id'ing them. The western scrub jays are our favorites for being playful with us. But we love them all.
Love the pictures! How nice to be surrounded by so much nature!!
Katie said…
We had a tanager show up this morning too! They are so cool!

I love this site to identify birds: www.whatbird.com I use the search feature to narrow down the possibilities. Very fun and easy.
Maryanne said…
So nice! We live on a city lot with woods behind us (thanks to a steep hill that no one has built on) and we love all our birds and (many)bugs. We haven't seen any snakes, but we do have a brazen groundhog that likes to come dine in our yard!