One night, a couple of years ago, we heard the most unusual, intense, shrill call from the wild. Being adventurers at heart, we donned flashlights and headed outside to track the call. The loud chorus made it easy to pinpoint the culprit- a gray tree frog! It was in the tree by our pond and he has once again found a home in our tree this summer. As their name implies, gray tree frogs spend much of their lives high off the ground, living in trees and shrubs. They are nocturnal creatures, only becoming active after dark to feed on moths, crickets and we hope mosquitoes! They move about the trees...

It's been difficult to spend much time in the backyard as our lives have been overrun with radiation and chemo treatments, negotiating doctor's appointments, health insurance, pharmacies, closing a business, and the like. About 2 weeks ago, I decided that we needed to give ourselves at least a fifteen minute break in the garden each day. The very first day, we were rewarded with finding a new family of house wrens who had moved into our birdhouse! Please see my blog of March 10, 2012 in the Archives entitled,"Nesting House Wrens" for information on the nesting pattern of the wrens. If anyone can identify...

  We had the most beautiful day last Sunday and it will be imprinted in my mind forever. Here we are-empty nesters, and we spent the day "tending nests"! We had a pair of cardinals who were frequent visitors to our yard this spring and I caught this photo of the male cardinal last Saturday. When I enlarged it on the computer you could see the cardinal was carrying two green worms in his beak. So Sunday morning we set out on a hunt for the nest, and sure enough, within five minutes we found the cardinal nest with four babies, in the woods that border our house. Dick set up the tripod...

Hummingbirds usually return to Massachusetts in mid to late April. This year I put my hummingbird feeder out early since the weather has been so mild. I've been anxiously waiting for the first sighting. This weekend I slept in after being up late with holiday preparations. My four year old granddaughter attempted to wake me starting at 7 a.m. On a later attempt, she exclaimed,"Nana, I saw the hummingbird!" Despite her New York City upbringing, she has become quite adept at spotting butterflies and hummingbirds during visits to our backyard. I jumped out of bed to check out the feeder... The...

During that nice spell of warm weather we took the opportunity to open up our backyard pond for the season. We took off the mesh covering which catches the leaves over the winter.As you can see there's always a lot of work to do at the beginning of the season. We usually have some perennial visitors when we open the pond- snakes, frogs, masses of frogs eggs, but last year was a first. We opened the pond on March 20, 2011. It was the first day of spring and a lovely way to celebrate.The following day, when my husband came home at lunch time, he found two mallard ducks happily swimming around in our little...

We had the pleasure of watching a family of tufted titmouse birds who took up residence in a birdhouse in our backyard last summer. We only observed one baby who already looked quite big when it first  made an appearance at the entrance to the birdhouse. The birdhouse was about 12 feet high on the tree, with the opening facing south. By the time the fledgling was ready to leave the nest, it appeared larger than the adult bird. Because this baby needed to be fed so often (about every 20 minutes), I was able to set up my tripod and camera and wait for the right moment to catch the mother feeding...

On a brisk Sunday in March of 2011, my husband suggested we head out on a day trip to take some pictures. The white blanket of snow was finally gone. It had been a long, harsh winter and we were anxious to get outside and shoot the first signs of spring.The branches were still bare and the landscape had not yet turned green. It was a cloudy day and everything looked dull brown. We returned home with some photographs of local landscapes, later slated for deletion. I was regretting that I hadn't stayed home to do yard work. There were leaves to be raked, brush to be cleaned,dead stalks to be removed,...

I noticed this house wren built a nest in our backyard bird house. House wrens are cavity nesters and are easily attracted to bird houses. I was surprised when a week later I saw what looked like the same species of bird carrying twigs into another birdhouse not 20 feet away. I asked a birder friend who explained to me that the male house wren starts a number of nests, shows them to his female mate, and then lets her select the one she prefers!Together they rebuild the final selection. The male may start as many as 12 different nesting sites. Wow, he really works hard to please his mate!...

  This past summer we had a garter snake who was a frequent visitor at our backyard pond. I found out why, on a hot, sultry day in July, when I witnessed the snake catch and devour a frog. A few weeks later, I spotted the snake again stalking his quarry. He was poised on a rock eyeing his prey with his tongue flickering in and out.Since I can generally be found in the backyard with my camera in tow, I caught the chase from his first leap to capture. The snake eluded me for several shots as he took his prey underwater and undercover of the shaded water lily leaves. Perhaps he was raising...

Every summer we patiently wait in anticipation of the bloom of our lotus plant. We fear it did not survive the harsh New England winter and then we are greeted by that first distinct leaf which dwarfs the other standard day lily plants. This year was no exception. Then begins the long wait until the plant matures and forms a bud. We silently exclaim," please don't burst into bloom the week we are on vacation or the day we are attending an out of town wedding!" For part of the drama of the lotus is that it lasts for only 2 days. The first day you can see the emerging bloom in hues of luminous...