Another view from the balcony

As I sit on my balcony in the morning reading the paper and drinking coffee, I become aware of the number of critters living on our grounds..

We have the famous Eastern Gray Squirrel and his relatives, the black squirrel, and of course chipmunks.

Having watched Chip and Dale when I was young, I was under the impression that chipmunks lived in trees.
It appears that the ones in Americana Finnmark, live underground.

Earlier this summer we had a fox roaming the grounds.

Perhaps the biggest population of animals are the birds.

We have the usual sparrows, robins, crows, wrens and Cardinal(male and female)(The male is the bright red one), blue jays..

We also have birds that I was not familiar with- and so I had to buy a bird guide in order to identify them.

Thanks to the guide I have been able to identify-- the house finch, a junco, the Eastern bluebird,a cowbird, the mourning dove, and a grackle.

I haven't seen the ducks, the geese or the deer lately-perhaps they have moved on.

As one can see, Americana Finnmark is not only a city within a city, but also a nature center.
When the weather is cool- sit on your patio or balcony and enjoy nature.

We have an array of insects-flying and crawling- but that is a subject for another article.