Ducklings

One morning on the way to preschool, David and John and I noticed that our baby duck had hatched.  We were lucky to have seen them because a few hours later the mommy duck had led them away.  They sure were cute.  

They’re ba-ack

Look who decided to join us again this year. 

I guess our flower bed is very hospitable for water fowl.  We’re sure that this is the same “Mommy Duck” as last year.  We’ve been told that this mating pair may build their nest here every year now.  This year we got to check out “Daddy Duck” too.  They were just hanging out on our lawn the other day.  We are not experts, but we decided that the dad must’ve been guarding the mom while she build the nest for their eggs.  We haven’t seen him again since that first day.  So far there is only one egg inside the nest.  It’s kind of interesting to watch, and our kids get a kick out of it.  I hope we get so see some ducklings again this year. 

Remember last year? 

 Also, I hope they leave promptly like they did last year.

Great Horned Owl

As my dad was coming out of his shed this morning he came face to face with this great horned owl. 

They could see that it’s right wing had been injured and that it wasn’t going anywhere for awhile, so they called us over to have a look.  Our kids were fascinated with the owl.  It was pretty cool.  Later in the day, Wildlife Services came and took it and hopefully they can mend it’s wing.

Looks like we’ve got a squatter…

 

This is what we found in our flower bed when we were mowing the lawn on Tuesday.

This mommy duck decided that our yard looked like a nice place to lay a dozen eggs.  That’s right folks, there are 12 eggs in that nest.  Tuesday was not the 1st time we’ve seen Mama Duck in our yard, but it is the 1st time we noticed her nest.  She’s probably been there for a week or more!  Now that we know she’s there we can see her from Ellie’s window.  She tends her eggs all day long.  Hopefully we will get to see some baby ducks soon. 

Buffalo.

I had to help my dad at the Western Buffalo Association's auction this weekend so we decided to take the kids out to the fairgrounds to gawk at the bison.  This big fellow sold for $13,000 if you can believe that...  Ellie was glad she went because Grandpa John bought her a sliver necklace and bracelet that the ladies were selling in the lobby.  John wasn't interested in the buffalo.  David loved everything.  He was so funny.  He thought that the dirt and mulch that the animals were standing in was corn.  He said, "Those guys can eat a lot of corn!"