Mother's Day

Yesterday was Mother's Day and it was definitely good because we got a call from Gwen.  It was so good to hear about all of the things going on in her life, much of which is centered around SCA. 

It is spring time here, so there are lots of other mothers around on this Mother's Day.  We saw this mother duck and her little ducklings in Unity Park in Highland Village while on one of our morning walks last week.  There was also another set of baby ducklings with parents along the bank, but they were all huddled together and sleeping.

One of at least two sets of baby ducklings on the fishing pond at Unity Park in Highland Village

We have also seen lots of birds with their babies in our backyard.  Several weeks ago the wrens in the birdhouse left the nest and are now everywhere.  We have seen chickadees feeding young chickadees, finches feeding young finches, and blue jays feeding young blue jays.  There are likely other young birds in the yard, but it is often hard to tell which are young birds and which are full grown unless they are going through the flapping of wings and cheeping "feed me" routine,   However, probably the best of the baby birds we have seen is in the wobbly cell phone video below from late April.

From the video you can see that the new landscaping plants are doing well.  We just recently planted the burgundy colored purple shamrock plants in front of the bird bath.  The ferns are thriving and most everything else is doing well except for perhaps the dwarf mondo grass.  In most cases the mondo grass is doing essentially nothing, but at least the squirrels have stopped trying to dig them up.  Crazy squirrels!

What may not be obvious in the video are the birds on the hanging feeder.  That feeder contains, Jim's Birdacious Bark Butter Bits, bite-sized nuggets made of rendered beef suet, soy oil, roasted peanuts, corn, oats and calcium carbonate.  Ummm....yum.  It would not be my favorite, but the Wild Bird's Unlimited website now claims that at least 138 different birds have been seen eating the stuff.

Jim, by the way, is Jim Carpenter, the founder and CEO of Wild Bird's Unlimited and the original creator of these bird treats.

We have not seen 138 different types of birds, but it is definitely a favorite among the birds in our yard.  It is especially loved by the woodpeckers, both the Downy woodpeckers and the red-bellied woodpeckers.  Shown below is a zoomed in version of a portion of the video above. 

It is very jerky in this zoomed in version since I was trying to hold my cell phone, but the opportunity to catch these two Downy woodpeckers on the feeder was just too good to pass up even if the video quality is poor.  Happy Mother's Day to mothers everywhere!