It seems like we have been waiting forever for the weather to get nice and now, all of a sudden, we have so much that needs to be done mowing, planting, weeding and more.

Missed Shots

Monday morning when we got to the farm I started on my walk with camera in hand. I began taking pictures of flowers in bloom only to realize that my camera battery was dead. The pictures would have to wait until later that day.

After my walk I began mowing grass being careful, as I normally am, not to run over any bees that were foraging in the dandelions. It may slow me down a bit but to me it’s worth it. I was mowing in the area near the gardens when I notice an adult killdeer running around, then as I looked closer, I saw the four babies. I’m sure they were only about a day old but I’m not sure where the nest was. At least it wasn’t in our driveway this year. I didn’t have my camera but was fairly certain they would be around later.

Not long after that, I was mowing not far from our beehive when I noticed that the bees were swarming. This is when I regretted not having my camera available. This is something you don’t see very often, and it is a sight to behold. Thousands of bees swarming outside of the hive. Keep in mind, if you ever see a swarm of honeybees, they are not a threat. They are in transition from one home to their next home and at this point their main objective is protecting their queen.

My husband and I kept an eye out to see where they landed, because he wanted to capture the swarm and put them in our empty hive if possible. They landed in a great location in a nearby spruce tree at a height where he could reach them. After lunch he went back to the farm alone (I stayed home with the dogs) and captured the swarm. Since I didn’t get any pictures of the swarm or him capturing it, I will refer you to this post from 2017 when he did the same thing.

It really was a gift having this hive swarm and being able to start a new hive with these bees since these bees were able to survive this past winter.

Now for some of the pictures from the week.

Nature

Three of the four baby killdeer.

Adult killdeer doing the broken wing act, trying to lure me away from the babies.

On Wednesday, we discovered another brood of baby killdeer running around in the front of the property, with the busy parents trying to keep track of them. We have to be careful when driving in or out, as they spend a lot of time in the driveway and they tend to blend in making them difficult to see.

This red winged black bird posed for me as I was walking around the back field. I assumed there was a nest nearby but since I didn’t know much about their nesting habits, I did a little research and came across this article. It explains that the female builds a nest between 6 inches and 6 feet above water or ground, anchored to upright stems of cattails, shrubs or tall grasses.

According to the article “Red-winged blackbirds are polygynous, meaning a single male defends a territory that contains the nests of multiple females. In Washington state, males typically have harems of 3 to 8 females nesting simultaneously on their territory.” It also states, “Both males and females defend nests aggressively, but they play different roles. Males are the more physically aggressive sex: they dive at, and sometimes strike, predators and intruders that come too close. During these attacks, males produce a distinctive growl call that they use only when actively diving at a threat. Females, meanwhile, vocalize at higher rates than males when a predator is nearby. The female scream call is the most effective alarm in the colony, attracting more birds and triggering the highest rate of hovering behavior from defenders.”

I remember several years ago I was walking in the back field and Trooper, our leonberger, was a ways ahead of me, I saw a red winged black bird diving at Trooper’s back. Trooper never saw the bird because it was behind him and the bird never actually touched Trooper, but it was definitely not happy the Trooper was there.

On Sunday we discovered, newly hatched, tadpoles in the pond. I had been watching for frog or toad eggs but never saw them. Obviously, they were there somewhere.

Before long we won’t be able to see this squirrel’s nest up in the pear tree.

Pear blossoms.

Apple trees blossoming in the wood line.

Remembering Our Moms

My husband picked out this beautiful dianthus to plant in memory of our moms.

The lungwort is also blossoming.

Behind the rock there are hosta plants and day lilies coming up as well.

Gardening

The garlic was being overrun with weeds.

I got about half of it weeded Saturday morning.

I didn’t get any pictures of it, but on Friday we got our new strawberry bed planted – 3 different varieties – 75 plants total.

Chickens

Just thought I would finish up with a shot of the girls enjoying their day.

Thanks for visiting.