Animals around your house...

That's really cool! I miss the time when I used to track frogs lifecycle when I was a boy. The toad and the green tree frog have close relatives in my country and I remember them with nostalgy. Now I rarely see an amphybian, even when I visit my homeland, they're not anymore where they used to be. Most of the territories are lost now and probably their numbers are decreasing. Thanks for sharing those photos, I suspect the turtles are not so easy to handle.

Unfortunately that's quite true of amphibians everywhere. It was really cool to be deep in the wetlands for a week and see so much wildlife that I never see around my subdivision home.

Some of these turtles were quite sassy for sure. The soft shells in particular, as you would expect, were ready to bite. The man handling them is extremely experienced but he had to be careful especially with that peacock soft shell. He looks placid in that photo, but he was not so.

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Usually, in my yard, almost only birds come to visit. Here is a white-breasted Nuthatch, who camte to visit us un my hybrid spruce a couple of years ago.

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And here is a black-eyed Junco photographed in my yard in April 2022.

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Oh! And there are always black-capped Chickadees chick-a-deeing in our trees and hedge around the house.

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Last one for today: an American Crow crowing in my old white birch, back in March of this year.

Wonderful, all of these are exotic for us Europeans so they're very interesting. I wonder why Safari released a common raven instead of an American crow. I think Safari will need to open a Garden Animals series like Papo. :)

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A Blue Jay feeding in my yard in November 2022.

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A female Pine Grosbeak feeding in the forest near my home, in February 2021...

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...and here is the male Pine Grosbeak.

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A female American Robin in my Red Spruce. We know it is a female because she has less orange and more white than males do on her belly.


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This American Robin, in the other hand, is probably a male. I photographed him when he was searching for worms on my neighbor's lawn, back in May 2021 or 2022.


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Finally, this fellow, photographed last Summer underneath my Red Spruce, is a juvenile American Robin. It still has his light markings on its face and wings plus its dark spots on its belly.

I searched the song of the American robin and it is just because of that I found it is a close relative to the Blackbird and not to the European robin. Sometimes these common names are confuse.

Roger wrote:

I searched the song of the American robin and it is just because of that I found it is a close relative to the Blackbird and not to the European robin. Sometimes these common names are confuse.

I'm not surprised. The American Robin is rather large for a passerine bird and has a rather elongated silhouette, like the European Blackbird. European robins, on the other hand, look a lot more like our juncos or chickadees: small birds with roundish silhouette.

Bowhead Whale wrote:

Roger wrote:

I searched the song of the American robin and it is just because of that I found it is a close relative to the Blackbird and not to the European robin. Sometimes these common names are confuse.

I'm not surprised. The American Robin is rather large for a passerine bird and has a rather elongated silhouette, like the European Blackbird. European robins, on the other hand, look a lot more like our juncos or chickadees: small birds with roundish silhouette.

You're right, actually it is a thrush and not a robin. It looks like a thrush and sounds like one.
It seems the reddish-orange breast is what originated the similar names and the American bird obtained it from the European.

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A male Northern Flicker in the woods near my home, in the end of March 2022.

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Grey Catbird in the woods near my home.

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Last one for today: a Brown Thrasher in my backyard, in Summer 2022.

Really great! Thanks for sharing, I'm not really familiar with these species and great shots.

Roger wrote:

Really great! Thanks for sharing, I'm not really familiar with these species and great shots.

Thank you!

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Common Grackle.

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Song Sparrow.

oh they are both so beautiful Valerie! Thanks for sharing the photos!