I recognize the calendar year isn't over, but both children are currently asleep, so now is as good a time as I'm going to get to retrospect on the year.
Overall, the year went by really quickly. We added new plants including junipers, red osier dogwoods, ox eyes, and asters. We also had a number of first time visitors including: Common Red Polls and Northern Flickers. In total, we've counted 44 species of birds this year.
Here's what the table looks like over time (Note: I've taken bees out of pollinators because I'm really bad at identifying species, so I'm only counting butterflies from now on.)
| Year | Mammals | Butterflies | Reptiles & Amph. | Birds |
| 2016 | 7 | 13 | 1 | 44 |
| 2015 | 7 | 12 | 1 | 47 |
| 2014 | 7 | 10 | 1 | 40 |
| 2013 | 7 | 10 | 1 | 40 |
| 2012 | 5 | 10 | 1 | 31 |
We also had sandhill cranes raise a colt in the neighborhood, and they made pretty frequent visits to our yard. In addition to the cranes we had American Robins and Eastern Bluebird successfully nest in the yard.
It was another good year of biodiversity in our yard, good enough to convince me to expand one of the front flower beds again next spring to add more Little Bluestem, New England Aster, and Ox Eyes.
Crane Parenting
Red Admiral
Mr. Bluebird checking out his new house.
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