This is usually the busiest season of the year for me , the gardens awakening with new beginings always fills me with new ideas, and new birds and other critters start popping in too. It's always my most exciting time of year in the habitat, and there is definately alot going on already this year .

 The redwinged blackbirds have offically invaded the habitat now. The males started streaming in a couple weeks ago and the females are starting  to join the males now. I call them an invasion because when they first arrive there are so many that they take over every feeder and water and  their shrill , high-pitched, songs are almost deafening with so many sounding at once it is sort of like a hard rock concert with 5 or 6 hundred singers together. But things will begin to calm down as soon as they start stakeing out thier territories and begin to scatter out more.

 Many other birds have joined into the concert too. The woodpeckers, greenjay,mockingbirds, orioles, painted buntings, cardinals, great kisgadees, doves, titmice,wrens, and warblers     have been popping in and out, and even though they may not sing near as loud or robust as the redwinged blackbirds, to me they are the sweetest melodies in the gardens.

 We have  had a few first time visitors too ! Last week I saw a pair of summer tanagers  bathing in the sprinkler. The female bathed under the sprinkler in the leaves of an oleander plant. And the male bathed a few feet away at the "glass bowl" water. (which is a punch bowl that I turned into a bird water years ago).

 Another new visitor was the dickcissell! I had only seen them in books or pictures and was under the impression they were a fairly large bird so I was very surprised at how small this little guy was. He's a tiny little bird that is very quick and hard to keep up with.

 We have had a few new beginings in the habitat as well! We have oppossums a Jill (female opossum) and three of her little Joeys (baby opossums) living in a wallowed out hole in the corner of the fence. In that corner there is a big old cactus growing that hangs down and covers her little hide-away. The mom usually only comes out at night, but her lil' Joeys don't seem to know that they are nocturnal critters yet. They are at an adventurous stage and every now and then I see one scurry out through the cactus and take a little tour around to investigate all the new wonders to be found there. If they start to journey too far away, mom will summons them back with short chattered grumps.

 We also have caterpillars soon to be butterflies, tadpoles soon too be frogs, dragonfly larvae soon to be dragonflies, and a new juvinile garter snake! It looks just like the adult one that started visiting the pond a year ago so I am thinking maybe the young one's an off-spring.

 The habitat is definately bustling with wildlife and nature activity right now and I guess that's why this is one of my favorite seasons of the year! I hope you are lucky enough to get out in your neck of the woods and experience some of the wonders of nature that are going on all around us now!!!

 Here are a few pictures of some familar sights around here now.

Red-winged Blackbird (male) 

Red-winged Blackbird (females)

Summer Tananger (male) 

Summer Tananger (female)

Dickcissel

Painted Bunting

oppossum

dragonfly larvae

Tadpoles

Caterpiller

Garter Snake

frog eggs

Happy nature journies to you all !!!

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