A Wool(ish) House

I found a super sweet bird nest the other day.  It had blown down during a wind storm.  I love all bird nests, but this one is extra special because of all the wool in it. Buddy and/or Woolliam, Petunia and/or Daniel and Chocula, Salt and/or Hank and probably some others as well.  Here's a quick tour:

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Thank you for all the calendar orders! I hope you know how much that is appreciated.  They are still "at the printers" waiting to be assembled, but luckily Tim's been busy this month.  That's appreciated as well ;-).

Some neighborhood news - there appears to be another stray cat hanging around.  Both my neighbor and I have been blaming the sightings on each other's calico cats and two days ago I broke up a fight next door in which "Betsy" took off running towards our farm...but then I found the real Betsy asleep in the house.  "Betsy's Stunt Double" was spotted between the two farms again last night.

Four bossy calico cats in one area is probably going to make for a long winter.  Why couldn't it have been a sweet orange kitty :-(.  Sigh...

Gone To The Birds

"This place has completely gone to the birds."

In "25 words or less" I've been watching out for two barn swallow fledglings that left the nest too early and ended up on the barn floor and driveway.  Yesterday was a day of learning.  Today I felt like I had things much more under control.  Crazy birds.

I couldn't get to their actual nest to try to stick them back in.  It's somewhere above the roll up door.  Turns out both babies and parents seem to prefer this much roomier basket.  The babies had "so much more room for activities", the parents swooped in and out feeding them, sometimes perching on the handle and even carried droppings out to keep it clean.  

When the shade ran out this afternoon I tried to move the basket into the barn and the older fledgling flew away.  The younger one should be gone tomorrow.  In the meantime, I'm kind of enjoying having them around.

Note:  There are two videos below that will probably not show up if you are receiving the blog via email.  You will need to go to the actual site to view them.  I think.

Feeding

Practicing

P.S. This is one of my better baskets, not one I'd normally use to hold something messy like baby birds.  However, I couldn't get to my more everyday baskets in the garage...because a Carolina wren has nested on the basket shelf, yes, using one of my baskets.

Nothing To See Here

"Cheep, cheep. Nothing to see here."

"Nope, nothing at all."

"Nothing to see except maybe these pretty flowers.  Aren't they pretty?"

"I SAID...nothing to see here!"

I'm guessing by now you've seen it ;-).  This was the first of the Wool House robins to fledge.  The second one went yesterday late afternoon and the third this morning.  They always look to me like they should have waited one more day.  

I was worried these babies wouldn't make it.  The momma kept getting so stressed about people up around the Wool House and garage that I thought on two occasions she'd abandoned the nest.  I'd have thought after her first set of babies that she'd be used to us by now.

Surely she's done for the summer.  Right?  

There's a new puzzle for you :-).  Enjoy!

Fast Food

This nest is on the corner of the Wool House and was actually built last year and remodeled for this year.  Look at all the wool and yarn :-).  

I'm not sure how momma birds do it.  All those open mouths.  I guess they are able to somehow keep track of who's been fed each trip.  It looks like she might have fed half of the worm to one baby and the other half to another.  I didn't notice that until I looked at the pictures.

In and back out in a flash!

Parenting

This robin nest is right out the greenhouse door...just off the back porch. Saint Tim put some wire fencing around the tree to try and discourage any bad cat behavior, but we won't rest easy until they've safely fledged.  We are enjoying watching them though.

I'm not sure if the adult in the first four pictures is the male or the female.  One feeds the kids and one cleans up after them.  Between the worms and the 'what comes next', I'm not sure I'd like either job ;-).

Nest Watch 2

Sort of like looking for a four leaf clover...

...somewhere in there is a bird nest.  Do you see it?  I almost didn't either.  In fact, if the mother hadn't flown up as Kate and I walked towards it, I might have stepped on it :-o.

Now do you see it?

There were three eggs and one just hatched baby in the nest when I found it in the morning.  By the time I got back out there to mark the nest, there were three hatched and just one egg left.  Last night there were no eggs, but the babies were all piled on top of each other and I didn't want to disturb them so I'm assuming there are now four babies.  I'll check back in a few days.

The only ground nesting bird I was familiar with was a Kildeer.  It didn't seem like a likely spot for a Kildeer though.  I usually find them in a rocky spot and they yell at me while flying away. This momma just quickly and quietly disappeared.

I came in and looked up nesting birds in Kentucky and didn't see anything that was a positive match. One nice site, The Birder's Report, offered to ID a nest, so I sent a picture and description of the location and quickly received a response back.  It's an Eastern Meadowlark!  One of my favorite birds to see around here.

I didn't realize they were ground nesters.  We leave as much "wild" area along our fence lines, creeks and ponds as we can Saint Tim will tolerate.  This nest is in the mowed area next to the "safe" area I'm guessing because the "wild" areas are too weedy.  I'm not sure what to do about that.  In the meantime, I've got this nest flagged and will be watching the ground for other nests.

Kate and Tilly never pass up a chance for a Unit ride, even if it involves boring sitting and watching me clean up fence lines.  The fence painters are coming.  We've been working our butts off trying to get ready.  That's the downside to letting things "go wild".  

Much of the perimeter fences are going to stay wild and covered up (you can see that in the background), but the interior field fences are being tidied up.  The fences around the big pond will just have the fronts cleaned up and painted.  I'll be glad when this is over!

If you've been jonesin' for some new puzzles, you are in luck!  I think this picture of Kate and Tilly would be fun, too :-).  

Enjoy!

Ten More

Random horse shot as they randomly decided to gallop back to the barn.  Hank loves when they do this ;-).

Early this spring I caught a tiny flash of brown dart out of one of the bigger lavender plants.  I quietly walked over to see and sure enough, a tiny baby bird in a teeny tiny nest.  I quietly told the little bird to always be very quiet, especially when there might be a stupid cat around.  

I'd stroll through every day, never doing anything that might attract a cat's attention and watched.  And worried.  And one day I saw a tiny fledgling in the nearby dye garden and the nest was empty.  A tiny success story!

Well, part of a tiny success story.  There remained an unhatched egg.  It's still there, tiny blue in a tiny horse hair lined nest.  So pretty.  I think it was a chipping sparrow.

I love this honey bee with her face deep in a bloom.  A good place to be :-).

There are actually three new puzzles - two with lavender and one with the horses.  I worked the horse puzzle last night and it was a fun one with lots going on.  Click the puzzle to get to my folder of puzzles.  There may be others you haven't worked yet.

Enjoy!

Good Morning!

Baaxter was the first lamb who Had To Go Out first thing in the morning.  He was always so rowdy that I was just happy he had something to do while I tried to drink coffee and catch up with him each morning. Liddy was much easier.  She'd graze for a bit and then come over and snuggle up for a long nap.

Bullwinkle likes to eat.  He wants to get up early and get out there.  I've got him staying (pretty) quiet until 6:00 and then we get up.  And go eat.  He'll check in with me for a couple seconds, but goes back to eating.  He'll check in again and then back out to eat.  The third time he comes over, he'll lay down and take a nap.  With a full tummy :-).

All the cats come out with us.  And Kate.  Tilly hangs out on the porch until she thinks there might be some food involved.  She's not an early riser.  It's light even though the sun hasn't crested the trees.

It's really not darker now that the sun is coming up.  I metered my light for the sunrise, which darkened everything else up.  The sheep and grass actually look more like the next picture...but the sun is blown out.  It's all give and take.  Which do you like best?

That's Andy and Liddy on the left.  The early risers.  Some sheep like to sleep in, too.

Bullwinkle, doing a little weed trimming for Saint Tim :-).

And a purple martin coming in, for kbdoolin :-D.  This is the second year for the martin house.  We had one pair that settled in and raised (I think) three babies.  I believe they are raising a second clutch.  I'm hoping we'll have even more living here next year.

There are some more fun morning (and afternoon and evening) pictures on my Instagram feed.  Yes, I'm now using Instagram.  In my spare time...  Sigh...  It's actually pretty fun.  Give it a try or just follow along.

Good morning!