Backyard: changes. Crops: fruits and seeds. Birds: variety and color.

This is our composting area. It also does double duty and serves as seasonal "toy" storage.

Our new birds feeders. Notice the mounting to the stump (drilled hole and wedged post).

I saw this little storage tip for the wheelbarrow on a TV program. Works great. It is built with a 2 x 4. This one is sized to fit the location on the shed. It could have been shorter (narrower). On each end attach a 2 x 4 block. The blocks serve as spacing for the front lip of the wheelbarrow to sit in. The final step is to add the slide bolt (at the top center) to hold the wheelbarrow against the wall.

This Morning Glory has grown along the driveway edge for years. The seed pods self seed the garden spot. Donna also hand harvest seeds each year. She gives them away to anyone who wants to have them growing in their yard. Each year we find them growing in other spots around the yard and neighborhood. My guess is the birds are dispersing them from our garden to wherever they travel.

This year we are going to have a fairly good plum crop. They seem like they are maturing early this year as are the apples and raspberries. It has been a very hot summer. Lots of days in the high 90's even some triple digit days. 

The apple tree only fruits every other year. Although the quantity of the fruit seems about normal the quality is not up to par. We have a lot more insect damage than in pass years. We do not spray the fruit trees by choice. We prefer to feel like anyone can safely eat the fruit directly from the tree.

We are thrilled with the number of birds we are seeing at our new feeder station. It took the birds less than two days to find the new location.

We are enjoying the variety and colors of the current visitors. 

This male Cardinal and his mate are year around residence of the neighborhood. We hear them 'talking' to each other throughout the day. The chirps and calls have increased in frequency in the last few days. The photo below helps explain the increased activity.

I was lucky to catch this photo.  Our kitchen window over the sink is high (eye level). We can not easily see the ground at the base of the feeder. I was watching the birds at the feeder this morning when the male Cardinal flew in perched momentarily on the crossbar and then quickly dropped to the ground. My guess was that the female was probably on the ground already.  I quickly grab a chair and the camera and managed to peek over the edge of the window to the ground. My first glimpse was of four Cardinals mom, dad, and two chicks. The mom heard me or saw me in the window and flew away. The dad however was to busy feeding the chicks to notice the guy in the window with the camera fumbling to get a vantage point and a picture.

This hummingbird was a little nervous about me being 2-3 feet away on the other side of window. We have to move slowly for them to land and stay. We are hoping they will get use to us and come and go without the additional caution. In any case we have seen and I have photographed more hummingbirds in the last 2-3 days than anytime in the past 10 years.