Now that Maeve is living the retired life she wants to tell you all about how great retirement is for her and what she does to keep busy.

This is her blog

The View from Grandma Maeve's Porch

I enjoy sitting in the sunny windows watching birds and bugs fly about. 

They've grown bigger...

...and are getting some feathers

The garden is a twitter. There are four new babies.

During the tornado storm ....'What's that on the door?'

Its a tree frog! Did the poor frog get tossed out of the woods?

Because of the orange colored markings under their hind legs I think this may be a Gray tree frog (Hyla versicolor). The other frog in Massachusetts that has these distinct legs is the Pickerel frog.

This past week I watched the Momma Robin build a new second nest in the back yard. Her first nest below in the yew was robbed of its eggs because it was too close to the ground. 

This new nest is about two feet off the ground. Maybe all the leaves of the viburnum will help hide its location.

Four new eggs.

Balor told us about this nest. Its about a foot off the ground next to the sidewalk by the side of the house.

When he found it it had three eggs. Today when we looked it had four. There are more photos of it on Balor's Blog.

This little tree frog was under the pool cover clinging to the wall. My daughter released him on the trees in front of the house. He was back the next morning under the pool cover, silly frog.

It's a new year and we had the swallow's return to nest on the porch post again. 

Now that they have flown away a house sparrow has built her nest above the door. 

Usually we have a momma Robin nesting there. This photo is her nest of eggs from a past year.

Meowmy has grapevine around the door that she usually puts seasonal decorations on. The Sparrow nest is inside the grapevines.

The babies have hatched and are making quite a noise. We see the grass of the nest but where are those babies?

Can you see their yellow beaks next to the feather that lines their nest?

I don't know how that momma bird gets in to them. It is going to be crowded when they grow larger.

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www.youtube.com/BlackandTanSiamese

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The bird babies are getting bigger

This is a great page for looking at Butterflies.  Massachusetts Butterfly Species List 

Butterflies love the flowers in the garden. This one is drinking from a Mandevilla flower.

We looked up this butterfly and found that black caterpillar  ( v down there v) is this butterfly! Great Spangled Fritillary (Speyeria cybele)

On the Bee balm.

Sipping the nectar from the daylillies

Tiger Swallowtail

Dragonfly

Cecropia Moth?

In April we had a red fox came a huntin'. We were so excited she was so close we could see her clearly but the camera had trouble focusing through the glass and screen window. 

We didn't want to open the door and scare her off. She caught herself a very nice breakfast while we watched.

This is the same hill the deer walked on and the black and white feral cat caught its dinner on last summer.

Video of the feral cat hunting

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Some of the other feral cats that pass by 

Tortie cat

Black cat

Early spring and the deer are looking for food.

A couple moths later and...

 Chuck is trundling about looking for the best salad greens.

Oh a Deer!

Hello Cicada, You sure make a lot of noise for such a little guy. Your sort of like Phinean, lol, He's loud too.

Yikes! I can hear them buzzing when I sit at the window by my daughter's computer. 

I hear some birds break into these and eat up all the larva at the end of the summer but this can't be good for the house!

Caterpillar...what will this make?

Sphinx moth horn worm

We have a pair of Swallow's nesting on the porch post. 

Meowmy left an old nest up there from an Eastern Phoebe and the Swallow's built their mud nest on top at the beginning of July.

Lots of excitement and noise today! The eggs have hatched.

Mamma and Pappa bird are very busy flying about catching bugs for the babies. The chirp and chirp for more food.

"Bring More Food"  

The Swallow parents all love when the grass gets mowed. They follow the mower and zip, swoop, skim, and circle collecting the bugs that fly up out of the grass.

In just a month the chicks have grown big and Mom and Dad spend all their time flying for food. 

When a threat is perceived not only to the parent bids fly and yell but all the other neighbor swallows fly and screech too. It's very exciting with 8 Swallows swooping in circles past my window.

Its time to fly! 

"where did everybody go?"

When the fledgings leave the nest they fly up on the roof.

Then they come back to the nest. Its a full nest too. The parent birds need to teach the fledglings to catch their own food before they can be on their own.

"Excuse me"

Swallow chicks keep their nest clean by sticking their tail over the edge of the nest to poop.