Our next encounter with the local wildlife wasn't really so warm and fuzzy.
The bunnies were our weekend fun, but one week night that followed brought an encounter with wildlife of a different kind. The flying rodent kind. Yes, I'm referring to a bat. Yes, you read that right. A bat. As I sat on the front porch talking with a neighbor, while our kids played in the back yard, I heard what I thought was a bird. I turned my head, not expecting to not see a bird, and certainly not to see what I did see!
I would not have believed it if I hadn't seen it myself. Where the hell did this thing come from?
OK, so May continued to be quite an exciting month as far as local wildlife finding our home. Fast forward to the morning of May 27th. Fred and I came downstairs to eat breakfast and noticed a Mommy Duck laying in the front lawn. Cool, we have ducks around here, this didn't surprise me at all. By the time we were done with our breakfast, Mommy Duck had gotten up and walked toward the house. Before I knew it, she was laying in the corner right under the dining room window (oddly, right beneath where the bat had perched just a week before - insert shudder here....). I figured she was casing the joint trying to figure where to lay her eggs. OK, that's cool. Wait, she's standing up. Must be getting settled. Wait, what's that? Holy crap, that an EGG!!
Daddy had just laid mulch in this area under the window like three days before, so this is a very fresh egg!! Perhaps she just laid it, perhaps she'd laid it the night before, who knows. Doesn't matter now, the egg is laid. COOL!
Before heading out to day care, the kids and I wanted to go out and and see Mommy Duck, and I snapped a picture.
She's very well blended in there with the mulch, an ingenious disguise. She kind of had that "Back off, humans, don't mess with this!" look on her face, so the kids agreed that it's best to leave Mommy Duck and not get too close.
We saw her and Daddy Duck the following morning, and have seen them one or two times since. I understand that ducks generally wander around, rather than sit on the nest the whole time. I think she's been back each morning very early, before making her rounds doing whatever she and Daddy Duck do all day.
So, maybe it's time for us to petition the Village and rezone our property. Think we should become a wildlife preserve? You make the call.
We'll update the duck situation in another two to three weeks, when the egg(s) should be hatching. I'm really hoping Mommy and Daddy welcome a baby or more, that would be really cool to see!
OK, so May continued to be quite an exciting month as far as local wildlife finding our home. Fast forward to the morning of May 27th. Fred and I came downstairs to eat breakfast and noticed a Mommy Duck laying in the front lawn. Cool, we have ducks around here, this didn't surprise me at all. By the time we were done with our breakfast, Mommy Duck had gotten up and walked toward the house. Before I knew it, she was laying in the corner right under the dining room window (oddly, right beneath where the bat had perched just a week before - insert shudder here....). I figured she was casing the joint trying to figure where to lay her eggs. OK, that's cool. Wait, she's standing up. Must be getting settled. Wait, what's that? Holy crap, that an EGG!!
Daddy had just laid mulch in this area under the window like three days before, so this is a very fresh egg!! Perhaps she just laid it, perhaps she'd laid it the night before, who knows. Doesn't matter now, the egg is laid. COOL!
Before heading out to day care, the kids and I wanted to go out and and see Mommy Duck, and I snapped a picture.
She's very well blended in there with the mulch, an ingenious disguise. She kind of had that "Back off, humans, don't mess with this!" look on her face, so the kids agreed that it's best to leave Mommy Duck and not get too close.We saw her and Daddy Duck the following morning, and have seen them one or two times since. I understand that ducks generally wander around, rather than sit on the nest the whole time. I think she's been back each morning very early, before making her rounds doing whatever she and Daddy Duck do all day.
So, maybe it's time for us to petition the Village and rezone our property. Think we should become a wildlife preserve? You make the call.
We'll update the duck situation in another two to three weeks, when the egg(s) should be hatching. I'm really hoping Mommy and Daddy welcome a baby or more, that would be really cool to see!
Maybe you can get "re-zoned" as a petting zoo and charge admission. What's next ponies in the backyard? Seriously, though, it sounds like your children have the best of both worlds right in their backyard!
ReplyDeleteOoh, pony rides, that's not a bad idea! They have been loving all the wildlife we'd encountered, and I really hope we haven't seen the last of it this season.
ReplyDelete