Stop To Smell The Roses, You May Find Something New

Have you ever really taken the moment to stop and look at the world around you?

As I sit here on the back deck writing this, the world around me is crazy busy. I am not talking about the lawn mower in the distance, the car going up the hill a couple blocks away or even the hustle and bustle that is happening over on State Street. I am talking about the baby birds in the beams of our deck, screaming for the mother bird to get through the hole to feed them; the yellow finches darting back and forth through the trees; and the fat bunny skirting by, hoping the two black labs that are sleeping at my feet will not notice her. It's a busy, busy morning.

Down at the bottom of our hill, is where the turkey vultures nest. Every morning they glide up to the steeple of St. Cyril, before making their rounds over the valley. There are like 20 or so of those giant birds. Ugly faces, but so graceful in the sky. We tell the little ones at the bus stop, they better watch out! You should see their faces.

This weekend the hubs actually scared the wits out of me. He flew open the bathroom door and made me jump out of bed, "You've gotta come see this!" I ran into our bathroom and looked out the window. Below were a beautiful doe and her fawn at our back gate. They were looking over the fence at our garden.

The boy ran in, half asleep still, and his eyes got wide as we watched them walk over into the wooded lot, a couple doors down. We have never seen that before. Hopefully one of these mornings we can get a picture of them.

As a family, we have been spending more time in the yard with the garden. By doing that, we have started to observe some of the amazing creatures that live within our fence. Now, we do not have a huge yard or live in a rural part of town. We are actually pretty close to the downtown, so I have been thrilled to find that our yard has so much to offer.

The past couple of years we have had a resident bunny. You would think having a black lab would leave our yard out of the running for places to have a bunny burrow. But our lab, Pepperoni, doesn't have that great of a sniffer. She actually has walked by the very spot where 11 baby bunnies were living and didn't even give it a second thought.

This year though, we are fostering a dog for a friend. I think our bunny has moved a couple doors down because of our new crazy canine. During this time of year, we have had to look around the yard to make sure it was safe to mow the lawn. If the bunnies were already hopping about, the boy and I would go around, gather them up and put them back after the hubs was done. They were a lot of fun to have around.

We also, have a lot of garter snakes. Dark bodies, white bellies and a strip of either yellow or orange, have been the snakes we see slithering around. The other day, I looked over the railing of the deck and was surprised to see a snake in the dogwood shrub below. I was shocked that I actually spotted it. It really blended in with the leaves. When I slowly made my way around to take a closer look, I saw that there were actually two of them, up about 3 feet, wrapped around each other. Clearly, we all know what they were doing together, but I was sure surprised to see it all right there, like the Discovery Channel in my own back yard.

The other week, we were driving up Lake-Cook Road toward McCarthy, and actually saw a bald eagle soaring over our car. The first time I saw one in the wild was when the hubs and I went to Alaska for our honeymoon. Never, have I seen one here. What a thrill it was to have the boy see it as it passed overhead.  

As a kid I remember seeing butterflies, birds and only once did I see a garter snake. I don't know if it is because I am getting older, and am starting to appreciate more of the little things in life, that I get a kick out of everything we have in and around our yard. I find it all fascinating and I cannot wait to see what we will find next.

Stop, smell the roses and take a look to your left or right, or even overhead and you may see a little more of wildlife than you thought you ever would. You will be glad you did.