IT’S BEEN A BIT of an animal menagerie on my property lately. First, three baby ducks bee-lined across the driveway, around the corner of the garage, up the hill and into the lilies that grow wild at woods’ edge. I have not seen them since their surprise showing on my residential lot blocks from the river.
I was pulling weeds in a flowerbed when I discovered this frog.
The frog stayed put for a long time so I could photograph it.
That leaves me wondering also why a frog would appear, perched on a chunk of limestone rimming a garage side flowerbed. But there this bug-eyed amphibian sat in the sun, unmoving except for the pulse of his heartbeat. Unlike the baby fowl, the frog froze, allowing me to take a multitude of images before he slipped into the flowers.
The bunnies always show up each spring when I plant my flowers.
Petunias are a favorite tried and true annual.
No rabbit photos, just more flowers.
And then the rabbits, oh, the rabbits, they have arrived in force since I potted and planted flowers like kale, petunias and impatiens. I’ve noticed a nibble here, a nibble there, but not complete consumption of what, to a rabbit, must seem a salad smorgasbord.
It is the crows, though, which I find bothersome. Ducks are cute. So is a frog in the odd sort of way such a creature can be cute. And bunnies, even if they prefer my flowers to grass, are, undeniably cute.
But crows? There is nothing cute about their annoying and raucous caws that grate at the nerves, that threaten in an unsettling Alfred Hitchock sort of way.
I won’t give crows the satisfaction of photographing them. But I did photograph this bird on a tabletop fountain.
And, no, I have never rushed to grab my camera and photograph a crow.
© Copyright 2015 Audrey Kletscher Helbling
Minnesota Prairie Roots 
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