I’m at home this summer, as I was this spring. With warmer weather, I have been sitting in the sunroom to read. It faces what I lovingly call “the front yard.” (It’s really just the part of the pine forest my cabin sits in.) With Time on my hands this summer, I began to watch what is going on out there. Lo and behold, to my surprise and delight, I found there was much more going on than just the Pygmy Nuthatch Condo in the Dead Tree in the center of the circle drive (about which I did a Dawn Chorus a few weeks back).
It looks pretty dry out there, and it is. Lovely pines but a lot of brown at ground level. It’s mostly hardpack and pine needles and cones. I did notice there were a pair of western bluebirds in the bluebird nesting box, which was exciting. And of course the nuthatches. But I didn’t think there was anything else going on really. I was wrong.
The local murder of crows was in and out and up and down and across all day long! They would sit in the tree and discuss it and then hit the ground walking. They walk a LOT! All over the place. I began putting a few pieces of kibble on the picnic table and, sure enough, while nervous about it, they would swoop in and get some. They liked it better if I put it on the ground, funnily enough. They have introduced this year’s youngsters to the yard. Strutting this way and that among the grasses. Not really targeting the kibble, just checking out the neighborhood and no doubt expressing their superiority. Smart creatures. Fun to watch.
The kibble, of course, attracted the gray squirrel, the big brown squirrel, the tiny adorable black Abert squirrels,
and chip and dale and all their chipmunk cousins! I’m not even going to include the foxes! Or the deer — not big on kibble but do browse through the yard almost daily.
(Not to mention the MOOSE that went past a neighbor’s cabin recently during the night! Or the bear who was behind the house a couple of nights ago.)
Then there was the whole fight over the condo housing thing, between the newcomer violet-green swallows — who did find a nesting place but not in the Dead Tree — and the pygmy nuthatches. (See prior Dawn Chorus.)
So to summarize: In the front “yard” this summer, I had nesting pygmy nuthatches and nesting western bluebirds and nesting violet-green swallows, and somewhere close by nesting crows! Along with the other local wildlife.
But what amazed me was that this was the Front Yard — not very far away from the Back Yard — the one with the deck and the bird feeders. And the birds, all the birds.
The front yard and the back yard of my home are like morning and evening, spring and fall, mutt and jeff, ice cream and cake. Oh well…. you get the picture.
They are my yards. Close to each other. Separated by my house. And yet they are so different from each other, in how they look and what they house and hide if you aren’t paying attention. I was surprised. I’ve never noticed such a disparity in any “yards” I’ve ever had.
And one of the reasons I was so surprised by everything happening — especially all the nesting — was that most of the inhabitants of the front yard spend little, if any, time in the back yard; at least, not at the feeders or among the wildflowers which characterize that area.
Also, the “regulars” at the backyard bird feeders, with the sole exception of the pygmy nuthatch colony, whose home is in the Dead Tree in the circle in the front yard, do not spend any time in the front yard. Though they spend the day in and out of the feeders and nearby pines and aspen trees.
Here’s what the back yard looks like:
The back yard is the Dog Domain. Yet it does house a few chipmunks and squirrels on occasion — those who have figured out there is food on that deck — and all of whom are very fast!
And since the Hayman Fire about twenty years ago, it is a wildflower domain as well. The pine trees are not in the back yard, so it isn’t dirt and pine cones and needles either. It’s dirt and dry but has all these wildflowers. The mourning doves and the juncos especially love the yard rather than the feeders (though the juncos will eat off the deck on occasion; they’re not big on the feeders themselves).
Also in the back yard are the bird feeders, which hang at deck level.
The deck, each morning, is filled with joyous birdsong! And the occasional irritated squirrel…. but nobody pays him any attention….
There are platform feeders and hanging feeders, with black oil sunflower and nyger thistle and safflower seed. From time to time there is a suet square. And in the summer there are humingbird feeders too.
It is no doubt the variety of food stuffs that has contributed to the wonderful variety of birdlife on that deck, in the back yard. Each summer I seem to find one more bird who I have not seen before at those feeders.
I have even gotten a few Life Listers passing through or even lingering a while.
But with SO much going on in the BACK yard, requiring my attention to the various feeders and feed supplies, it had never occurred to me before that the FRONT yard could have so much to offer and be equally exciting!
So what this diary is in aid of is just to share how remarkably different are the wild spaces in my two yards, connected by my cabin, and the earth under our feet, but separated by ecosystem ( can I call it that?), ecology? species calling them Home, perhaps amounts of sun? wind? rain? — probably mostly sun….
Since I just noticed all that this year, while I am Staying Safer at Home, as our governor puts it, I found it remarkable and noteworthy. You all probably think I’m showing some early senility therewith. Sorry about that. I hope you still enjoy the Grand Tour!
WHAT
A DIFFERENCE
100 FEET MAKES!