Lately we see many animals. We saw both deer and foxes in our backyard, a coyote by the river, and countless birds. I was surprised this morning to see a massive flock of Canada geese flying overhead. To me, Canada Geese are a sign of changes in the seasons, and I found it odd to not hear them when I lived in Japan. It’s quite amazing that they learned how to fly in v-formation, a pattern that allows them to save energy and travel longer distances.

Lately our garden is starting to reveal itself and since this is our first spring in this house, we’re not sure what to expect. The gardens around here are quite different from those in our previous neighbourhood in Ottawa. They seem more wild with lots of moss, rocks, and spreading coniferous trees. I plan to use as many native plants as I can in developing our garden, and it seems like the previous owner of our house was of a similar mindset. So far I’ve found a native elderberry tree and milkweed amongst countless (as of now) unidentified plants. We’ll have to see what pops up out of the ground over the next couple of months.

We also have been getting different visitors at our bird feeders. We put up some of our bird feeders near a line of trees by the side of our house. Birds, especially smaller birds, require shelter in order to protect them from predators and weather. While it took a few weeks, we now have many visitors including downy woodpeckers, red-breasted nuthatch, dark-eyed juncos, chickadees and lately a pair of cardinals. We also put up an owl nest – although I’m not sure if an owl will take residence there.

This weekend we plan to start looking into how to convert some of our grass lawn into a clover lawn. I will post about that soon.