unexpected visitors

On Tuesday night I discovered an unexpected friend the cats brought home. We are unfortunately very familiar with the four legged variety they wine and dine upon or let loose in the giant mouse hotel we call home. This one was a little different.

This is a baby black cap chickadee. It spent almost a day with us as I searched for the nest around our property and neighbors. Gail across the street had mentioned earlier in the season that chickadees were possibly nesting in her curly willow. We checked it out but no luck!

I really wished the above photo was in better focus. All it’s main feathers were coming in well. No puncture wounds or anything harmful from the cats. One leg did seem to have more problems gripping than the other. Maybe injured when it fell from the nest?

I did poke a chicken based wet dog food down the gaping yellow mouth when it opened. It finally went off to our local animal rehab by late afternoon.

The other visitor was discovered in amongst the catnip plants. Can you spot it?

That would be one of our native tree frogs. Cute little guys!