Our Backyard's Backyard
By Emily
The ponds/lagoon behind our backyard was open to the public for this weekend only. We decided to go visit there because we always hear a lot of birds back there. "The lagoon was expanded to increase storm water capacity and enhance the natural habitat of the area. The Public Works Agency of the County has created three ponds (constructed wetlands) which is referred to as the ponds."
-Brochure
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| This is the view of the Lagoon. A lot of geese like to hang out here. |
When we signed up at the visitor's center, the kids got to go on a scavenger hunt for different types of seeds. This seed was one of our favorites.
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| This is a willow plant . If you pop it... |
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| ...this is what is inside. The little black dots are the seeds. The wind will carry away the fluff and the seed to reproduce. The fluffy stuff is so soft. Like silk. |
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| We saw an American Robin eating some berries. |
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| Boy, there are a lot of them. I wish I had that in my backyard. |
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| In a small stream, we saw many many frogs hopping about. |
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| Above the water... |
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| ...under the water. |
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| In the lagoon, there were a lot of Canada Geese. I always hear these loud honkers flying over me when standing outside my house. I wondered where they were going. |
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| American Coot |
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| Female Ruddy Duck |
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| Snowy Egrets and Great Egrets |
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| Great Egret |
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| Great Egrets and Snowy Egrets |
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| Snowy Egret (left) Great Egret (right) |
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| Western Scrub-Jay |
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| Our house from the other side of our fence. (You can see part of my bird feeder.) | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
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As you all know, the Squirrel is always taking things. He took birdseed, peanuts and even a scooper. One time, he took a whole feeder. We went to the the other side of the fence and there it was, hanging right there on a tree.
I think that the Squirrel took the feeder, dropped it on the other side, and
somebody picked it up and hung it on the tree.
EDITOR'S NOTE: Can you believe that all of what Emily wrote about is literally behind our backyard? It's not normally open to the public and you have to schedule an appointment to be able to walk through it. I see lots of classes on field trips go through it during the day and Boy Scout troops working on projects behind our fence on the weekends. We always hear tons of chirping and croaking noises unbeknownst to us on what it was coming from. So now we know! So amazing! It is also literally on the Fault. Yes, our backyard is THE Fault. Kind of unsettling but we know God is in control of all things!
2 comments:
emily, don't be so eager to have that berry bush in your back yard - it looks like pyracantha. we had one when i was a kid, birds would get drunk off the berries and injure themselves flying into our windows!!
nancy
That is awesome! We're studying earthquakes and it seems like being directly on the fault can be better than living further away from it. I remember living in a small town (Leona Valley, CA) for 2 years in middle school and the only way into and out of the town was a single two lane road that went right over the fault. Oh my wicked imagination and the fears that sprung up over that! Thank you Emily for sharing about this! There are so few birds in Shanghai. I miss every other place we've ever lived if only for the birdsong!
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