Some critters from the yard.

Jer and I went running one morning and, upon returning, saw a hawk in the copse of pines at the front corner of the property. Imagine my surprise when, a few days later, one of the same (if not the same) was perched atop my deck table's umbrella!

When the umbrella one flew away I tracked it and saw another specimen sitting on the fence. I guess they're here for all the rabbit and squirrel and groundhog and chipmunk. Good hunting to them. I have yet to identify what kind of hawk these are. Not red tailed, which is the commonest, but I'll figure it out eventually.

This is a big insect, possibly a moth, that was enjoying my petunias on the deck. Jer saw him and told me I had to come look at it. I'm sure glad I did before it got away. It had clear patches in its wings. It also had a long proboscis, greenish or yellowish, but you can't see it in the pics. A google search for "large diurnal moth" tells me that this is almost certainly a clearwing, Hemaris sp., possibly H. diffinis or H. thysbe. Cool, regardless.

 

 

This is a common tableau for under the apple tree in the front yard. Those would be canadian geese and a groundhog. If it's not these critters, it's deer. They all seem to like munching on the green apples that are falling off the tree.

And, lastly, here's a little wren that was just singing its heart out, loudly, when I was in the yard. Some of them are nesting in the box that the flycatcher had nested in earlier this spring.