Early Spring Families

It's spring, and that means it's time for babies! Starting from at least last Friday, the mom Eastern Phoebe who made her nest on the back of our house has been incubating eggs. I snuck around the corner of the house to take this picture, but we've been careful to give her plenty of space:

I love how flat she stays, with her eye just barely peeking over the top of the nest. According to allaboutbirds.org, Eastern Phoebes incubate eggs for 15-16 days. So in just over a week, we might have some baby birds as next-door neighbors....

This female Eastern Bluebird has been hanging around our yard with her flashier mate recently. I wonder if they're working on a nest in a neighbor's yard:

What a pretty lady:

Our trail camera picked up an interesting scene last Friday night. I've never seen a White-tailed Deer lying down before. Am I crazy, or does this doe look a little pregnant? She's certainly rounder than the scraggly deer who walked by the camera just before her:

 

While so many other animals are just starting to make babies, Fox Squirrels give birth in late winter (March or earlier), so their families are pretty well grown by now. On Sunday, I looked up at a tree in our woods to see a Fox Squirrel face looking back at me; and then a second squirrel poked its head out of the same cavity:

Fox Squirrel babies! OK, they're pretty big babies, but they're still adorable:

I wonder if their mom is one of the two female Fox Squirrels who regularly come to the house to pick up bird seeds. Aw, snuggly babies:

There were probably more than two squirrels in that cavity, because little faces kept pushing out of the hole and then going back in again. I took this video of the Fox Squirrel family from a distance, so it'll be easiest to see the babies if you watch it in full-screen mode:



I wish all these families the best of luck, whether they're just starting out or almost all grown. It's going to be a busy summer around here; and a lot of the breeding birds haven't even returned yet!