Wild Kingdom

Lately our backyard has become quite the wild kingdom.  Some robins hatched on a ledge just underneath our deck.  Whenever mommy bird isn't there, the dad stands watch in the yard and squaks incessantly at me if I dare to walk anywhere in the backyard.  He's also been known to buzz through the narrow area under the deck in some sort of intimidation move.

 Perhaps this is why I've seen less the past few days of our family of chipmunks, who have a rather substantial hole in the backyard.  

They tend to poke their heads  out one by one at around 8AM each morning, surveying the surroundings until they determine it safe to leave their hole.  

They then head over to the fish pond and frolic around on the rocks surrounding the pond. They like to stand up on a large rock and I've even seen one leap onto Sweetie's Japanese lantern and sit up on top of it like a king.

And occasionally we'll catch sight of one of the goldfish we bought recently for the pond, although they tend to stay on the bottom.  I hope they will start to surface more once they grow a bit and are less intimidated by all the other creatures in the yard.