ben, luke, and sam: the birds and the eggs...

we interrupt our regularly scheduled blog update (including pictures from the end of APRIL and all of MAY- augh!!!) for a quick look at spring at the matthys property. several fun things are going on outside, so we wanted to share.

first, last week we had a woodpecker visiting our leaning tree in the backyard. the tree is dead and the woodpecker was taking advantage of some prime pecking real estate!! ben and i both thought this was pretty cool because we've read about woodpeckers a lot but had never actually seen one before! here's a picture of the tree...

and this is a close-up of him actually pecking away!!

we sat outside for quite awhile (in the heat!) on several different days, just watching him go at it. of course our attention spans aren't always very long, but we would play and watch him work at the same time. ben especially loved seeing the pieces of bark fall - he left quite a mess behind!!

and in the garage even more exciting things are happening - we have a birds nest in there!! take a look at our bookshelf/stacking unit right in the middle of our garage. on the middle shelf there are two brown boxes and in that top box is a little birds nest!!

ben likes to play in the driveway and the garage with the doors open a lot, so i guess the momma bird just decided to make herself at home in there! it seems a little odd to choose that spot, given all the trees in our backyard and beyond, but it makes for some excitement for us and a little nature lesson. a few days after we first noticed the nest, we then saw 4 little eggs inside - whoa! here is a close-up of the nest, but our momma didn't get the greatest pictures because she didn't want to disturb it too much...

and there really are 4 little eggs inside - it's just hard to see them because they are very small. and i should say that there were 4 little eggs inside - just late last night and early this morning they hatched!! i haven't gotten to peak at them yet because momma says we can't disturb them, and we are a little nervous about how they're going to make it in there. but we'll keep you posted on how they are doing.

we've seen all kinds of things around here so far - lots and lots of deer (almost every night), spiders, ants, rollie pollie bugs (my favorite), frogs, cardinals, blue jays, a bright blue bird we don't know the name of, a woodpecker of course, almost daily evidence of an armadillo, a recent incident with proof of a racoon (whoops! more on that another time), and lots of other animals too. surprisingly but thankfully we haven't seen a snake yet, but we know they are all over around here because the neighbors have warned us and we always keep our eyes out for those. but we do have one other creature that must be in our area somewhere close by. the eggs in the garage have hatched but now all of a sudden there's another egg that has appeared and we can't figure out what it belongs too! i know ostrich eggs are pretty big but i don't think ostriches are indigenous to this area, and i don't think they are quite this big...