Good luck, baby!
Last night I went out to feed my pasture pets and there were two deer standing right in front of the barn. My little crippled Dobie ran right at them and protected me from harm. 
Two more times now I’ve approached the pond and a Great Blue Heron has taken off. I’m going to start approaching with my phone ready for a pic.
Other years I’ve seen one a couple of times all summer, now it seems there’s always one there.
There is also the Puerto Rican amazon, a parrot endemic to PR. It’s endangered, but there is a plan to save it.
The Sisserou parrot, aka The Imperial Amazon is a critically endangered species. The last I read said there were 50 in the wild on the island of Dominica (not the Dominican Republic), the only place where it is found. It is a very cool bird that is featured on Dominica’s flag, which hangs in my mancave.
The Caribbean is something of a hotspot for parrot biodiversity.In addition those already mentioned, Saint Lucia and St Vincent each have an endemic species, and Jamaica has two
I stopped for cherries at a fruit stand, and the guy running it pointed out this tiny chipmunk. He had thrown a cherry to him, but it was so big compared to his tiny body, he was having problems with it. So, he just decided to sun himself.
I saw chipmunks when we went to Utah, but never could snap a picture. The little bastiges are fast!
Storks were extirpated (thanks, @Pardel-Lux !) in the UK for six centuries before being reintroduced a few years ago just down the road from us. So I kinda have a soft spot for them.
Today, on the Marais of the Cotentan peninsula here in Normandy, we watched a parental changeover on the nest followed by feeding the chicks. Special.
The chicks, BTW, are already doing serious wing flapping practice.
j
Yeah, I remember staying with family at their house at Lake Arrowhead (CA), and the chipmunks were running crazy fast all over the upper balcony. One morning we found just the tail of a chipmunk out there, and we took it to use as a fur collar on our Barbie’s coat.
They run back and forth atop our fences. Very cute, like cartoons.
We have one that lives under the front porch. It loves to sit in front of the glass front door and drive the dog wild.
Friend/neighbor messaged me asking if I could stop over, she had something interesting. This was in her yard:
Snapping turtle! She asked what it was doing in her yard. I was able to shed some light. It had walked here from her pond, and it was likely going to lay eggs, which they do in June in our area.
“There’s good eating in one of those!”
Discworld reference, not a serious suggestion.
Skink by our hose:
Whiptail, I think. See post 2857 .
Looks a bit like the Plateau Striped Whiptail, unless that is out of range for you (parts of Utah, AZ, CO, NM and, weirdly, introduced to Oregon). Very neat critters - that species is exclusively parthenogenetic.
Went to beautiful Henderson Lake, outside of Durango today:
Stopped at Honeyville on the way back, but couldn’t find the queen.
Since spring there’s been some mallards, a male and two hens, on our pond. My gf likes to encourage them to stay, even though they sometimes hang out on the dock and shit there. So, she’s been giving them cracked corn rack morning.
Her encouragement worked. Yesterday the three mallards had six or seven just-hatched ducklings paddling around.
Really cute, but until they are full grown and flying they are easy for predators to eat.
Saw a bunch of bumblebees harvesting pollen this morning:
That bee is an “absolute unit”, as the kids say!