How Shelter-in-Place Has Opened My Eyes to the Wildlife Show in My Backyard

Some of it is not so welcome

Jim Farina
Age of Awareness
Published in
5 min readSep 3, 2020

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Photo by Bryan Padron on Unsplash

Sheltering in place over the past several months has us appreciating the freedom of the outdoors. It’s not that we can’t get out for a walk, but there are restrictions. Many of the parks are closed and most trails or accessible outdoor areas have higher than normal traffic now. With so many people home, everyone is looking for exercise, mood-boosting sunlight, and a change of scenery.

The Hungry Heron

Our kitchen faces a private, beautifully landscaped backyard. We have a small koi pond that can be seen from the window over the kitchen sink. We had about five-thousand pounds of boulders brought in to create the water feature. There’s an easement at the back of the property. It provides a slope that’s ideal for planting in tiers and a natural incline for a three-level waterfall.

I place feeders out for the hummingbirds every April and we plant strategically to attract them. They buzz our garden till around mid-October. This is about the latest we’ve seen ruby-throats in the area as they make their long journey back to Central and South America to winter over during the cold months. I customarily put out grape jelly and mount half-oranges on spikes for the orioles that pass through.

Photo by Zdeněk Macháček on Unsplash

We’ve had a couple episodes where heron stop by our pond. It’s a good stop on their flight to some nearby marsh, bog, or dedicated nature preserve. These wetland areas abound in the surrounding Chicago suburbs.

We witnessed a white egret eat one of our prized koi. The fish was about a foot long and we’d had this one for many years. The stork swallowed him in one horrifying gulp as we watched helplessly. Our dog was barking at something. We looked out and saw the magnificent creature standing on the edge of the pond. We were mesmerized — it didn’t immediately occur to my wife or me that this bird posed any immediate threat.

That’s one lesson we won’t soon forget. In early spring, before the Lilly pads provide any surface cover, a hungry heron or…

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