[TraceyM]

My daughter calls our yard a national geographic in action yard. Honestly, it's not that big and it's not some beautiful landscaped place, but it has one evergreen that is huge and in back is a very tall, very healthy row of arborvitae. I swear an entire ecosystem is supported by these two areas of greenery. We also have a small veggy garden that gets too much shade and behind it a great hedge of Hydrangeas that have grown massive over the last 23 years because they love that shade! Heck, we don't even have a fence between us and one of the houses to our side - just never wanted to pay the money for it and I don't think that homeowner did either.

For our first several years here, we didn't see much more than some birds. But as the urban boundary we lived on shifted and more and more homes were built where animals lived, we have seen more and more visitors.

We've had an assortment of squirrels and even a family of ground squirrels that created all sorts of havoc this past spring trying to dig up my husbands stone patio he labored over. They were beyond cute and as I designed I would hear their footsteps as they launched themselves on our back deck to explore the plants and birdfeeders.

We've had on and off raccoons over the last dozen years. This year I'm sitting in my favorite chair near out window to nature and in broad daylight suddenly there is a raccoon trying to get into the birdfeeder. Some might think the first thing to do is shoo him away. The first thing I did was grab my phone to take photos and video. Ha ha. Luckily have just a few repeat visits, the raccoon vacated the premises for the summer.

One year our tomato plants couldn't seem to take off. Came to find out from our neighbor that deer were coming in and eat the tips off the plants. Doh!

I adore the warmer seasons of all the birds on our feeders. We are up to 4 squirrel-proof feeders now. I have a little local bird book and just fold down the page when something new turns up. This weeks new bird was a gorgeous little downy woodpecker making it's way through the area as only for a day did it grace us with its presence.

And rabbits. Spring especially is crazy with rabbit activity out back. They are our lawn mowers, our lawn fertilizers, etc. One time my daughter saw a hawk come down and kill one for it's dinner! I do love the rabbits. And so do the hawks - doh!

What are your yards like? Do you also have menageries? I guess I'm glad that at least I have not yet seen one of the local coyote's in our yard!