Category Archives: Birds

Wrapping Up June

Birds, Blueberries, Blueberry jam, Cherries, Deer, garden, Reflections, Strawberries

I let Ruby outside a Thursday afternoon and as I stood looking out the window waiting for her to return a small but colorful hummingbird made a quick stop just a few feet away from where I was standing. It’s pause in flight was just enough to say “Hello” before it hurried on its way. My thoughts immediately turned to my mom. It’s been 12 years (Friday, June 30th) since Mom passed away and there are still times when something will happen, and my first thought is “I should call Mom”.

For many years of my adult life mom and I would talk almost every day. She wanted to hear every little thing that was going on in my life and the lives of her grandkids. She would have loved hearing about that little encounter with a hummingbird.

Then on Friday evening when we turned to calendar to July it was as if Mom was speaking to me. More hummingbirds.

What I really meant to share in this post was some of the things that have been going on over the last couple weeks.

Berries

We have been picking both strawberries and cherries. Our strawberry crop is small this year and we have been eating some fresh so I only have about a quart in the freezer. Well I should say had because Monday I decided that if I am going to make strawberry jam I would have to buy berries. When I called the strawberry farm where I have bought my berries in the past I found out that it was their last day picking and I was able to snag the last two trays they had. I kept one tray (8 quarts) and got them in the freezer that day. My sister picked up the other tray so she can make jam as well.

Our cherry crop, on the other hand, was fabulous. I think I have 10 quarts in the freezer now and have made 4 pints of cherry juice. My husband finished picking all that we wanted then my sister came and picked about 4 more quarts. We left the ones we couldn’t reach for the robin family that is nesting in the maple tree nearby.

Organizing Freezers

I needed to organize my freezers because the 1/4 cow that we had ordered from our local farmer would be coming soon. I still had a large piece of suet in the freezer from last year so I cut it up and put it in the crock pot to melt. When it was mostly melted I strained it through a fine mesh strainer lined with two layers of paper towel. As it cooled it hardened back up and I now have several pounds of tallow to use in soap making. (This tallow could also be used as cooking oil or in candle making.)

I also had blueberries in the freezer from last year’s crop, so I made a double batch (6 pints) of blueberry jam and some very tasty blueberry popsicles.

Sewing Projects

My sister K.C. and her husband were in Michigan for a couple of weeks so on one of our days together K.C. and I made a trip to the fabric store. The main project I was shopping for was fabric for my dining room curtains. I knew I wanted, in some way, to match the kitchen curtains that I made last year but I didn’t want them to be exactly the same.

The picture above is the new dining room curtains I made. You may remember the kitchen curtains I made last year are full panels of the blue with the lemon pattern that I used as trim for this set. I am very happy with the way these turned out. They are very cheery and, in the afternoon, when the sun shines through the yellow, the room glows.

While at the fabric store I also found same really good deals on clearance fabrics. One fabric was a Christmas themed fleece for $2.98 a yard. It wasn’t anything I thought I would use for making garments, but I realized it would be perfect for making dog blankets to donate to our local humane society. For less than $15 I bought the last five yards and have cut it up into 7 pieces to make dog sized blankets. I have finished the edges on two of the blankets and when I finish the others will make a trip to the humane society to deliver them along with some scarves and chicken potholders that I am making for their “Pawzzar” fundraiser they will hold in December. Animal adoption is not the only way to support our local shelters.

Gardens

As summer arrived our weather pattern changed. The dry weather that we had from late May and early June has been replaced by pretty regular rain showers and storms.

We were able to stop watering the gardens and the plants have really taken off.

We will be picking green beans before long.

The blossoms on the tomato plants are turning into small tomatoes and my husband spotted our first cucumber yesterday.

I don’t know if we have ever grown healthier looking cabbage.

Chickens

When we arrive at the farm nowadays the welcoming committee looks something like this. The chicks have really grown up. The rooster on the far right in this picture, who we are now calling Rex, began crowing a couple of weeks ago. Out of the three roosters he seems to be the dominant one. A second rooster just began trying to crow this week.

Deer

The deer population on the farm has been greatly reduced since my husband put up the fence this spring. There are still a couple of does that regularly stop for breakfast (and lunch, and dinner). We did have to put fencing around the strawberries after we discovered the tops nibbled down and my husband replanted and fenced the mammoth sunflower patch after the deer ate the tops off, but they haven’t done nearly as much damage as they have in previous years.

Among things that they have (so far) left alone are the Asiatic lilies that have been in my prayer garden for at least 6 years. Each year they come up but before they ever get a chance to blossom the deer eat the tops off. This is the first year I have ever seen them blossom. That fence has been a blessing in so many ways.

I’m going to wrap up this post that I started writing a week ago, even though I could keep adding things (like we started picking blueberries) because if I keep adding to it July will be over before I hit the publish button. 🙂

Thanks for visiting.

Blooms and a Bluebird

Birds, Flowers, Reflections, The Farm

Evening Primrose

Dianthus

Roses

Creeping Thyme

Salvia

Iris

Peony

Roses

Chives

Our Prayer Garden

Wild Roses

This spring I have been seeing a bluebird around the farm a lot. I really don’t know if I am always seeing the same one or there are more than one, because I have only seen one at a time. This afternoon I was able to capture a picture of it in the oak tree at our picnic area. Not the clearest picture but I think you can tell it’s a bluebird.

Thanks for joining me and have a great weekend.

Birds and Bees

Bees, Birds, Reflections

Hello everyone. I just thought I would share a few stories from this past week.

Fledging

Early this spring I watched for several days as a pair of robins flew in and out of our arborvitae bushes carrying building materials. I was hesitantly excited about having baby birds hatched in the bushes that I view from my kitchen window. I say hesitantly because these bushes are not always the best place to support a nest. High winds have a tendency to bend the branches. In past years I have seen eggs that have fallen from a nest under those bushes as well as baby birds that have fallen from the nest and died. Cats that roam the neighborhood also like to hide under those bushes and sometimes climb them.

After watching that pair of robins building their nest this spring they seemed to disappear for a while. I wondered if they had abandoned their nest. It was over a week ago when I noticed the pair coming and going again this time carrying food. I knew there were babies in the nest.

Sunday evening Ruby and Ranger were outside on the deck, and I was sitting at my desk. The window next to me gave me a clear view of the deck, the courtyard and the arborvitaes. Suddenly Ranger and Ruby went running down into the courtyard. As they did two birds came flying out of the arborvitae. One was an adult robin which flew up into the maple tree. The other was this baby which landed in the grass.

I watched it as it sat there for a while just looking sort of confused. Then it began to hop around in the grass. The adult robin stayed in the area observing what was happing with its young one. I’m not sure if it was time for this baby the fledge or if the dog’s sudden movement startled the birds and it accidentally tumbled out. I haven’t seen it around since nor have I seen the parents so I am not certain if this baby lived or not. I have, however, concluded that since the parents did not return, this was the only baby in the nest.

Swarm

Sunday evening my husband was sitting at the picnic table under the big oak tree. He said he could hear a lot of bees buzzing, and when he looked up, he spotted this large swarm of bees that had landed in the oak tree.

He wasn’t prepared to capture them that evening but decided if they were still there Monday morning he would because A) these bees came from our son-in-law’s hive that had survived last winter so they are apparently a hardy breed of bees. B) We had friends from out of state who were coming for a visit and picnic at the farm Monday afternoon, and we didn’t want bees buzzing overhead as we visited and ate.

The swarm was still in the oak tree on Monday morning so he took my camera to get a picture of them before he captured and rehomed them in this hive.

By the time we set up for our picnic only a few bees remained in the area.

Mourning

I think it was Thursday or Friday that my husband told me about a lone Canadian goose he spotted wandering in the field next to our property.

On Saturday when we arrived at the farm the goose was sitting in the grass near the pond. As we and the dogs went about our business we were surprised that the goose did not fly off. He just relocated in an out-of-the-way, wooded area where many of the chickens were hanging out.

He didn’t seem injured or ill but we didn’t see him eating and when my husband offered chicken feed and water he just hissed at my husband. He also hissed at Ruby and Ranger if they got too close. Just a warning that he wanted to be left alone.

When I did some online reading about geese, I found out that geese mate for life and if they lose a mate they will go into mourning, often wandering around looking for their partner. They may isolate themselves and not eat. I suspect that this guy lost his mate. I suspect they were nesting near our neighbor’s pond and his mate, and perhaps babies if they had any, fell victim to a fox. Heartbreaking.

The above picture was taken on Monday. He was still there when we were getting ready to have friends over. I decided to try to get him to leave the beach area since we wanted to be able to enjoy the beach with our company. As I approached the area where he was swimming Ruby came running up as well. When Mr. Goose saw Ruby making her quick approach he instinctively took to the sky. We were very happy to see him fly off. He first flew east then a couple minutes later he flew back over heading west. Hopefully he will join up with a flock and find a new mate.

Thanks for visiting!

Sunshine On My Shoulders 😀

Birds, Chickens, Chicks, Daffodils, Dogs, Fencing, Flowers, garlic, Killdeer, Nature, Pond, Reflections, The Farm, Weather

Over Easter weekend we had beautiful spring weather and throughout the week, that has followed, it seems that the weather has just gotten nicer each day.

On Easter Sunday, when we went out to the farm, I wore jeans and a jacket over my long-sleeved shirt, each day I have found it necessary to wear lighter clothing until yesterday, and again today, I have broken out my summer wardrobe and am wearing shorts with a tank top and enjoying soaking up that long-awaited sunshine.

Let’s take a look at what’s been happening at the farm this week.

Sunday

For about the past three weeks my husband has been working on fencing in the entire farm. It’s a huge undertaking as the 7.6-acre farm measures 1000 ft (304.8 m) by 330 ft (100.5 m). When it is all done he will have pounded in more than 260 fence posts and strung more than 2600 feet (792.48 m) of fence.

The small fence posts in the above picture line the east side of our back field. He has the entire back field fenced at this point and is working diligently on completing the front of the property.

In the above picture the fence lines the front of our property on the west side. When this project is complete we will no longer have to worry about Ranger and Ruby and even the chickens wandering onto neighboring property or into the road. It will take a large load off our minds.

There seems to be an abundance of robins this spring. Some of them have even sat still for pictures.

The fence in the above picture which had enclosed the main garden area is also being removed.

The pond level is up from last fall but it has yet to overflow like it does most years in the spring.

Ruby did not hesitate to get her feet wet as she enjoyed a cool drink from the pond.

Things are beginning to green up. I’m sure the thunderstorms we had last week helped.

Tuesday

Tuesday the weather really warmed up so we were able to move the chicks to the farm.

My husband set up their chicken wire enclosure. He designed it so they have access to the coop through the small door with hopes that they will learn to go in the coop at night.

He also put up a divider inside to coop so they do not have access to the big door.

I bet you’re not surprised to see Ranger watching the babies.

Like robins, we have an abundance of red winged blackbirds.

Some of them posed for pictures as well.

I also got a rare picture of a kildeer that was hanging around near the beach before Ruby chased it off.

The garlic that we planted last fall is coming up nicely.

As I looked up to see if the maple trees were getting leaves yet I noticed what appears to be a Baltimore oriole nest. It seems too early to be a nest build this year, so I am assuming it was from last year or maybe even the year before.

I only say “the year before” because I noticed a second one in the same tree. I don’t know how likely it is that two pair of orioles would nest in the same tree.

Some of the chickens had wandered into the field next door. This won’t be a problem once the fence is complete and it really isn’t a problem now because that neighbor doesn’t mind.

But Ruby thought it was a problem

and took it upon herself to bring them all back home.

She really does have amazing herding instincts and skills. If you have ever tried herding chickens you understand how difficult it can be. It took her less than two minutes to round up eight hens and bring them back over to our farm.

Thursday

The chicks are doing well at the farm, feathering out nicely, learning to forage

and maybe even learning to get back into the coop.

It was a great day to be in the pond, at least the dogs thought so.

Ruby discovered the (bullfrog) tadpoles and has now become obsessed with watching for them and trying to catch them. I suspect she will spend a lot of time there this summer.

Ranger just wanted to go for a swim to cool off.

When deciding to put up the fence my husband and I discussed the likelihood that the wildlife presence on our farm would be altered. Not necessarily a bad thing. While deer, fox, racoons and other animals can get over the fence it’s hard to say whether they will or not. I suppose it depends on what there is to motivate them to do so.

However, I never considered that the fence might be a problem for a pheasant. Pheasants can fly and could easily sail right over the fence.

This male ringed-neck pheasant was very confused and spent several hours trying to find an opening in the fence.

Eventually Ruby spotted him. I’m not sure if he flew or ran when she chased him but I think she did him a favor as he did clear out of the area. Hopefully he found a different route home.

I’ll leave you with a slide show of flowers that are blossoming at the farm. Among them are daffodils, forsythia (beginning to open), and primrose.

Thanks for visiting.

Knockin’ Robin Update

Birds, Reflections

After publishing my Rockin’ Robin post I did some searching on the internet to try to find a solution for our knockin’ robin problem. I was pretty excited when I can across an article, that I believe was put out by the Texas Department of Natural Resources, (I forgot to save the link) that had a simple solution that they claimed not only worked but worked immediately. What I needed to do was take a highlighter (marker) and draw grid lines on the inside of the window. The horizontal lines should be no more than 4 inches apart while the vertical lines should be no more than 2 inches apart. EASY!

Hopefully this will be the last time we see this.

After following the procedure I waited, hopeful that this worked to ward off the bird and I would be able to promote this simple method to others who experienced similar problems. Instead I have to be honest and tell you that this did not work. It was about an hour later that the bird was back on the attack – flying into the same window – same place, and he continued to do so throughout the rest of the day. Whether this is a case of don’t believe everything you read on the internet or if birds in Michigan are different than birds in Texas I am not certain. I can’t say that this method would never work just that it did not for me.

After that failure I got off the internet and turned my attention to what I was really witnessing. As mentioned above the bird was consistently flying into the same window at the same spot. Let me explain. There are two windows that are set only a few inches apart giving the appearance of one large window. Each of the two windows also has two panes of glass the lower pane slides upward to open while the upper pane is stationary. The lower panes have screens on the outside to keep bugs out when they are open. The window on the left-hand side has a vinyl mini-blind hanging on it that for the most part remains closed. It also has a curtain. The window on the right-hand side is where the dogs like to look out so the mini-blind was removed quite a while back. (Dogs and mini-blinds do not mix.) That window does have a curtain though. The upper right-hand pane was the only place that the robin was attacking, not the panes covered by screen or mini-blind.

The next thing I did was to take the mini-blind from the left window and move it to the window on the right. Thankfully the brackets were still in place so this was easily accomplished. I raised the blind so that it was only covering the upper pane, this way the dogs can still see out without bothering the blind. It was a real AHA! moment as I observed the bird begin attacking the window on the left and for the most part leaving the window that was covered with the blind alone.

It took a couple of days before we got a new mini-blind hung on the left-hand window. We had to mount new brackets because the new blind would not fit in the old brackets. During those days I was able to observe that the bird was consistently attacking the pane that was not covered by either screen or mini-blind so I was pretty well convinced that hanging a new blind would be an effective way to stop this birds behavior.

It’s only been a couple of days since we hung the second mini blind but I will share what we have observed so far. For what remained of the first day after hanging the blind I did observe the robin at the window a couple of times but he did not hit the window as hard as he had previously been doing. It seemed more like he was just looking, not fighting. My husband noticed that the robin was spending a lot of the day perched on the top of my car which was parked in the driveway right next to the tree. This was a BIG problem because he was pooping all over my car. My husband chased him off when he saw him but neither of us had all day to stand guard.

The second day and now well into the third day he was/is gone. He was not sitting on the car, nor have I witnessed him flying into or up to the window at all. YAY! Peace has been restored to our home and neighborhood. 🙂