Nature!

As Jeran likes to exclaim whenever we see a squirrel in our neighborhood, "Nature!" We have some interesting animals around our house - not interesting like platypuses or wildebeests or two-headed snakes or anything. Just little examples of the wonders of the animal kingdom.

I work near a window looking out over our front yard. We have had a little birdfeeder sitting outside the window for a lot of the past year and I have been able to identify over 10 types of cute little birds with the help of my handy pamphlet "A Pocket Naturalist Guide to North Carolina Birds". Included are the following (I didn't take these pictures - I wish!):

Carolina Wren (Thryothorus ludovicianus)

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher (Polioptila caerulea)

Tufted Titmouse (Baelophus bicolor) which was the cutest bird I have ever seen. Seriously, it was adorable.

House Finch (Carpodacus mexicanus)

Eastern Wood-Pewee (Contopus virens)

And of course, the Northern Cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis), which is North Carolina's state bird. They are much bigger than most of the little birds that come around and quite the bullies.

Yep, I am a birdwatcher at home. And its not really like in this picture, thank goodness. I almost always stay in my chair. :)


This post is dedicated to Andrew per his suggestion.