This birdhouse of my uncle’s has seen better days, but it has hosted families of bluebirds for at least a few years now. And two years ago I came over to his house and stationed myself out front with my tripod and camera and captured the action as they were feeding their young. But last year the blue birds were chased off, evicted sort of, by another, larger bird, and they didn’t raise a brood in this house, so my uncle moved the house across the street to what is now my house.
Lately there has been a lot of activity at the birdhouse, and the other day I finally tried to see what bird was paying attention to the house, hoping for bluebirds of course. But I could’t see what they were so I took a few pictures, but I still couldn’t say for sure what they were since was getting dark out, and it was even darker under the carport. But I heard some activity early yesterday and I saw a bird actually leave the house and fly to the palm tree close by. It turned out to be a Red-bellied Woodpecker. This may explain why the entrance hole is not the precise hole that it once was. This bird has done some home improvements, made it her own. I can relate. Be it ever so humble there’s no place like home. 
Ah, but I wrote this a couple of days ago and there are new developments. Seems I wasn’t too far off the mark hoping that it was bluebirds that were interested in the birdhouse.
And the other possibility is that there is an odd couple in the neighborhood. Stay tuned…
fBut I was left to my own devices yesterday, and the result is what you see in the feature photo. There may have been a trip to Hobby Lobby early, but the rest of the day was spent on that wonderful porch. I keep hearing mention of the extreme heat, but it was perfect porch-sitting weather here. And there was hardly a moment to play with my fabric, what with watching all the varieties of birds at the feeder, until the blue jay came along and shooed them away. I continued my binge watching of Dead Like Me on Prime video on the iPad, and then there were photos to edit on the laptop. There may have been a beer involved, but not until after 5 PM, if Kathy was home it would have been wine. We were shopping one day when I first came here, and as we drove through the booming metropolis of Franklin, NH I happened to see a shop called Granite State Hedgehogs. Yes, you read that right. I had to do a double take. So when I drove past today I stopped in, and yes they are cute, but not so cuddly. I had suggested getting one as a pet and dressing it up and taking pictures, which had Kathy doubting my sanity. But when something is that cute you want to cuddle it, and I tried, but they are just plain prickly. So I opted for this little plush Hedgie, he fills the bill nicely.
It’s not unheard of for a moose or a bear to visit this yard, but that didn’t happen. I had my camera ready for anything just in case. But I’m not complaining. It was a lovely, quiet, porch-sitting kind of day, for me at least. Not so much for that poor bug.
I saw a deer out back almost as soon as I got here on Friday night. I was able to sneak out the sliding glass door onto the screened porch, and then out the screen door and onto the steep back steps for these shots. The back yard is a steep slope, too steep to mow, so the birds, winter wrens according to Merlin’s best guess, were enjoying the weeds and singing up a storm out there. The deer stood still, watching me, and then disappeared into the woods. She was back again this morning and maybe I was sneakier because she went about her business. As soon as I got a few shots I went back inside and left her to munch away on those white flowers.
I asked Merlin to be sure, but of course the male Ruby-breasted Hummingbird seemed pretty obvious, and I had made assumptions that the other was the female, and I was correct. And our other visitor yesterday was a White-breasted Nuthatch.