Our Backyard Visitors

We've been having so much fun with the little nature visitors in our backyard lately. I've really been having trouble getting photos of the birds. Every time I open the door, they fly away. And, the photos through the glass don't turn out great. But, I thought I'd tell you who's been visiting us these first few weeks of spring.

• squirrels - although they aren't coming as often as they did when we first put out the feeder
• mourning doves - these have always enjoyed our waterfall "bird bath" (actually, just the waterfall to our pool)
• pair of cardinals - I love these and have taken quite a few blurry photos
• one bluejay, all alone
• several sparrows - usually a male and female, but sometimes there is a 3rd female
• a pair of mockingbirds - actually, until a few days ago, there was just one. But now, we have a pair. He stopped singing as much now that there are 2 of them. We'd just watched on Backyard Habitat that mockingbirds like to be on the highest place. Well, one of them (the male?) keeps perching on our backyard neighbor's chimney (I guess it's a chimney). (photo) Sometimes, the other one (female?) is on the roof near him.
• Butterflies! Especially some Monarchs - and now we have a Monarch caterpillar (photo) who is growing fast! Just yesterday he was itty bitty.

It's a lot of fun learning who visits our backyard. We are leaving dh behind tomorrow and taking off on a vacation! Alexandra and I will be joining my dh's mom for a trip to Colorado - Alexandra's first trip to the mountains! I'm so excited, but a little sad to miss this spring transformation of our yard. I hope all of our little friends stick around! Anyway, I'm taking my laptop and hope to keep everyone up-to-date on our travels.