{Wild} life in the Valley

Our neighborhood is in metro Birmingham but our home is nestled in the valley between two hills alongside of a couple of creeks and is just about as beautiful and peaceful as we could imagine having anywhere--city or country.

It is quiet and heavily wooded with trees taller than I knew they could grow outside of lands that are protected.

We have wildlife and critters of all kinds. Which could not be more awesome when you have an outdoorsy 2.5 year old little fella.

You've already met Gary the Snail. (in case you missed it and are intrigued--click here for a post about a snail.)

Here's Hootie, the Barred Owl who hangs out VERY VERY (almost too close) to our back porch in the evenings.

Hootie is the reason I am hesitant to get a kitten and very thankful we didn't get Lizzy a bunny to go with her bunny 1st birthday theme.

We have zillions of pics of a dozen or so deer on a trail camera that sits about 10 feet from the end of our driveway. Bucks, doe and fawn (fawns? fawni?).

Raccoons are also often on the camera.

And Cody the Coyote was found on the camera at the end of our driveway. (Again, no kittens for us.)

A very large hawk (who also perches the in the same spot as Hootie)

Woodpeckers and Red Birds GALORE.

Squirrels and Chipmonks (Jay calls them "Chicky-Monks") by the truckload....or bird feeder load?

We "inherited" these bird feeders with the house as well as 5 or so birdhouses that we cleaned out and several are now occupied this spring.

I've also Identified Eastern Bluebirds, White-breasted Nuthatch, Mockingbirds, Robin, and many more yet-to-be-identified-birds all frequenting the bird feeder by the kitchen window. I hope to teach Jay and Lizzy (and myself) about bird-watching  My grandparents would sit and watch their feeders or sit on the back patio and ID birds and calls. I learned just a little but remember realizing how relaxing but intriguing it was. I wish I would have learned more about it from them, but its a start.

We've also spotted a Peacock roaming our neighborhood, I presume it's a pet.

(P.S. Peacocks are REALLY difficult to see when cruising at 35 on a shady road. They are short and sleek and kind of blend in with the pavement. I really don't know how I would explain to Jay what happened if I ran him over but we came very close to that today.)

(P.P.S. If you live in a residential area and have an exotic bird as a pet, you might be advised to share with him a little story about a chicken crossing the road and not making it to the other side! If its Tahoe vs. Peacock the Tahoe wins.)