Enjoying the Beauty of the Back Yard!

It's that time of year when everyone starts spending a little more time outside.  Spring is when we fertilize, clean up the yard, plant new shrubs and flowers and so on.   This past week it seems I spent a  a little more time than normal outside, whether is was watering some of the plants ( like the Azalea and Indian Hawthorn) after they were fertilized,  pulling weeds from the flower beds, or just relaxing on the lanai with my puzzles and enjoying the perfect weather and frequent visitors to our backyard!

Three of our Azalea bushes on the east side of the house needed replacing, so that meant a little extra watering.   The  lady who mows our lawn treated several of our Indian Hawthorn in the front yard, that for some reason attracted a little fungus......  but there is now some new growth.  The backyard is looking quite nice............  The St. Bernard Lily - The Ixora Bushes are in full bloom. We didn't even know that we had Caladiums in the yard........but we located these down by the water and others along the west side of the house.  The magnolia blossoms are out out on the large tree in our neighbors yard.... and our pineapple ( we have five plants) are really getting big!

The black bellied whistling ducks were back again - this time filing through the yard rather than perching on the boathouse.   Another flock was situated on the dock across the canal. 

One afternoon I got fascinated by the little lizards.   Technically, I'm not sure if the black one between the rocks is a lizard or a black skink.  Wish I could have got a better picture - he was pretty!    Rich actually watched one day as one of the black birds in the yard managed to corner and grab one of our resident lizards when he came out from under the stone.

Over the past several days we been visited by this pest bird.  Actually there are two of them, and they seem to love our sliding glass doors.  The windows are tinted - so we think they see themselves in the reflection.  They land either on the window or the screen, and pound there beak against the window or flutter their wings.  I did my online search to try and find out what they were, and determined they were Western Kingbirds ( also called fly catchers).  They migrate to Florida but not in large numbers.  I read that some have recently been seen in the neighboring county near Lake Okeechobee.  I guess they are working their way to Highlands County!!!

And one of my favorite visitors was back.  The Great Blue Heron

Amazing how fast time flies when you are enjoying this much beauty right in your backyard!