End of the Season Finds!

Here are some weird ants that were coming out of the ground in droves and flying all over, the ground was black with them and the air filled!
I was in the kitchen one afternoon and looked out the slider and found this guy! When we opened the door he make a break for it, he wanted to come in! We got some good pictures and the kids got to see their first praying mantis!

I have always enjoyed looking at the moon, it is so beautiful!

Don't these turkeys know they should be in hiding in November!!

Turtle Adventure!

So just the other day as we were driving through town Riley spotted a turtle about to go into the road! So we pulled over and mom rescued the turtle... a baby SNAPPING TURTLE!!! We brought him home, caught crickets, and named him, Spike! But much to everyones cringe, mom would not hear of keeping him. But we did keep him for a few days before relocating him to a nice pond!

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Here are some pictures from his release party! Look at those claws!
So little!

Spikes new home!

Bye Spike!

Backyard Wildlife!

With the new babe we have spent so much time in our backyard instead of gallivanting around the country so we are finding LOTS of critters we have never seen (or maybe not noticed) before! Every summer we listen to the song of the cicada, and this year we have actually found a couple of their shells! They are now residing in our nature basket!
The boys found this snake in the more wooded part of our yard (the part they call "The Hiking Area"), it is an Eastern Ribbon Snake!

And this cool find! These are salamander eggs, and then they started hatching! They were put back right where they were found!

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Any wildlife in your backyard?

Morning

Look who we found out back this morning!!

A Groundhog also known as a Woodchuck or an Eastern Marmot!

Needless to say it has started quite a few rounds of, "How much wood could a..."! :) We watched him and found out he is living under our shed, he must have scared off the opossum that use to live under there!!

The groundhog was neat to see but look at this beautiful sight we also enjoyed this morning!

So beautiful!

Summer!

Our summer has been mostly about the backyard, but there are always wonderful things to find there! Dandelions in our nature journal!
Blueberries in our tummys!

And the Heavens in our hearts.

Lucky?

Well Riley did not find a four leaf clover (he has the notion they are easy to find because my husband has found three in his lifetime), but we did discover the first dandelions of the year! Now we just need to wait for them to appear in our yard! I am so glad spring is here!!

The Crocuses Have Waned...

But the daffodils are beautiful!The ones in the front bloomed a few days ago, but today was the first day we have had sunshine since.
I love daffodils, they are one of my favorites!
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You do know how they got THEIR name right?
And the famous POEM too!