Quail, rabbits, frogs, and Oliver (photos by Jonathan)

Jon almost always takes his camera to Grandma's house. If he doesn't, he'll see things to photograph! 

There are many wild rabbit around. Night shots are not as easy as they might be. 

 It is inevitable you will capture the elusive were rabbit with photography. Bunnicula's eyes do turn yellow, in Wallace and Gromit's: Curse of the Were Rabbit, the rabbit was a giant creature who really was Wallace. FUN movie!!

Jon also found a very tiny frog in the yard here in town.  I wonder if the little thing is normally this small? 

 And then a couple of photos of Oliver. I called him Dandy Lion til his teen owners came to rescue him and gave him proper identification. I do hope he keeps away from the young robins. However, he and the neighbor Siamese are incredibly fond of climbing trees. Which is how Oliver got on top of the Little House in the back yard!

In a Robin's Nest (photos by Jon)

The work of a robin isn't done til the fledglings take off on their own. By then, parents often have another set of young ones to take care of. And I thought raising two boys was crazy! 

These first two photos were taken May 28. The babies were barely hatched. You can kind of see little open beaks in the second picture. And mom is much less harassed looking! 

 This one was taken during a very hot evening, June 1, -about the time we had some thunderstorms. Mom's panting on the nest, protecting the little ones. Her nest is high in a lilac, but fairly exposed to the elements.

 Waiting to be fed. Jon shot all of these pictures this last weekend (June 7). The babies are larger now and about ready to fledge. They can jump from the nest about 13 days after hatching. The next week is the toughest. They can't fly well, need fed by the parents, and are at their most vulnerable. I'm afraid the neighbor cats are going to enjoy fledglings in a short while. We try to chase the cats away, but 24 hours a day in 10 or 15 (til they youngsters are strong flyers) is a lot of unseen hours for neighbor cats to wander by.

 It is almost like she's teaching them how to fly, but Jon really probably just caught the mom as she was getting ready to forage some more. Baby robins eat a lot and both parents feed them. A robin can make 100 trips to the nest to feed babies each day!!

 They are very well camouflaged in this lilac nest!

I got the information on robins NOT on my favorite All About Birds site, but on one about American Robins. If you follow the link, you can find even more fun facts. Also that if one does fall from the nest, before it is ready to jump, it can be put back carefully. I didn't realise "robins identify their babies the way we humans recognize ours-by sight and sound, not by smell. So if you can safely put the babies back in the nest, go ahead!"

June Flowers

This post is mostly about one iris. But, there will be a few other flowers! I love how the CA poppy bed looks this year. 

 When Hugh Jackman sings about the beautiful morning, the lyrics mention the corn being 'as high as an elephant's eye'. Eastern Oregon can have beautiful mornings, but it appears the catnip is as high as the windowsill!!!

I've not had many iris this year. Jodie thinks they might be crowded, she's probably absolutely correct. I'm also glad we didn't have the odd bug that ate hers! I tried to google long thin beetles, but no luck. I had one white iris, several yellow, a lot of purple, and the burgundy ones. This particular one was even more striking, it was more of a velvet brown. Although, you can't tell from the photos! A lot of fun closeups.

 A different angle and the light changes the colors completely!

 This bottom one wasn't supposed to be added, but it looks like an ocean animal. Thus, it stayed with the rest.

 Laughing iris!!

There is also a rose vine that has a lot of lovely red roses on it. 

Maude Hart Lovelace is one of my favorite authors, it fits this post perfectly! 

“It was June, and the world smelled of roses. The sunshine was like powdered gold over the grassy hillside.”