The Visitors In Our Back Yard

In Nepal, my home had a big space and a lot of trees. There were a lot of pets like cats, dogs, chicken, goats, bunnies, and a white mouse. There was also a family of five owls and many pretty birds such as parrots and doves. Now I live near the ocean, by the bay. There are always animals and birds, bugs and flowers and wild grapes and wild strawberries. 

I guess the best thing I like about both places is the nature. Some of the animals that I see often in our backyard and front yard are wild hare, deer, foxes, groundhogs, tortoises, squirrels, and hawks, and many types of birds. 

The hare used to come to our backyard and I used to feed it carrots and lettuce. It liked green leaves. Now I only see it sometimes early in the morning, otherwise it is at our neighbours’ place and my father has to be really careful when he drives because there are hares, foxes, squirrels, deer, and tortoises crossing the street. 

I see families of deer in the backyard. There are does and fawns and sometimes a buck or two. They graze and the fawns play on our big field. The woods are next to our home and there is a creek that they can drink water from. If I see them and go out, they look at me, and then after a while, they go away. 

I usually see tortoises in the spring and the summer. They stay under the banana plants under the stairs and the sun room. There are more than 10 tortoises in the area. Sometimes, they walk out onto the road and once when we were on a walk I and my father saw a baby tortoise that had been run over. Once when my father was driving he saw one on the road, stopped, and carried it across. Then when my mother and I were waiting for the school bus, there was a young tortoise who walked onto the road and we had to help it so it would not be run over. 

There are groundhogs that live in the back yard. They are shy. I only see one at a time. It lives near the shed and it has dug a huge hole. I think I could fit in there. It is kinda cute and stands on its legs to look around and runs away when it sees us.

We have grey squirrels and brown squirrels. They run around and they climb trees and chase each other. They are a lot of fun to  watch. The other day, one ran right across our car and my father had to hit the brakes sharply.

There are also many types of birds like the robins, ravens, owls, hawks, and eagles. Some of them eat the dead animals on the side of the road, they are called the black vultures. I love these animals and also bugs but if you get too close to some of them you will get hurt so you have to leave them alone. I am really inspired by them and I wanted to write an article about these visitors to our home and our backyard.

(Zoya is a student at Windy Hill Elementary School in the US. )