Robins, Baby Robins and an Oriole

Our new house is pretty close to a tree outside and it doesnt touch but almost luckily the tree is really old so I doubt will get much bigger.  But in this tree a Robin made a nest, nothing new.  But from the first bedroom we can look right into the nest its pretty cool. Took her a long time to make the nest it seemed but maybe just cause I was waiting on her.  Then on May 23 she was sitting on eggs, finally.

And we waited and waited and finally on June 8th we noticed babies.  They must never get full they just made noise all the time and would fall asleep with mouths open and wake up and chirp more.  Sure are ugly little things good thing it doesn't take long to grow feathers

And by June 17th they were on the ground.  Not flying very good, I probly coulda picked them up but I didn't of course I know how wild animals are.

Kinda fun to see them around now copying their mothers eating worms, flying into windows whatever.  I read the bird book today and it said they can see the ground move where the worms are, kinda creepy but they sure like it here the last little while we been getting lots of rain so the worms are close to the surface.

And I saw a orange bird flying through he didn't stop much but finally found him hidden in the leaves, who knew orange could camo so well in green?  This is when I really like my zoom lens got couple good pics of him.  Never seen a Baltimore Oriole here before, wouldn't have even known that is what is was if Neil's friend hadn't said he saw a bunch at his place.

I don't even really like birds but I can see these from inside my air conditioning when its hot and humid out.  Missed getting pics of the hawk at the end of the driveway this year, only one and hes almost ready to leave the nest.

Visitor

We had this guy visit our yard.  I walked out towards my truck and it looked like the grass was moving and something big was there, never thought much of it probly the cat.  And then next thing I knew he was sitting on the fence post.  Weird to see them on the ground he musta had a mouse or gopher or maybe even a snake, but whatever he wasn't too worried about me from across the yard and so I got my camera and got a pic of him watching me.

Baby Hawks

Every year we get a nest of hawks at our corner and this year was no different.  They are almost full grown and just trying to be brave enough to leave the nest for the first time.   I tried to got pic of them smaller again, but there was so much leaf growth in the wrong place that it was so hard to see them, and I am trying not too disturb them too much.

(I see 5 in this one)

(beedy eyes)

(standing tall)

They are so adorable and funny all at the same time, when they start to fly they are so uncoordinated and just kinda fall to land, I love watching them, make me laugh.

(pretty camouflaged)

We are pretty careful to drive slow this time of year around there, and we always ask others to as well, they arent quick enough or smart enough to get out of the way of a vehicle for a couple weeks.

Im a Sucker

So I have had a million blackbirds in the yard this year, I asked others how to get rid of them and all I got was shoot them.  Well I am a terrible shot and a little tiny moving bird haha gophers much easier, lol.  So I just been tearing out all the nests I can see and irritating them as much as I can.  I found about 6 nests and they all are gone.  But I missed one and it had baby birds in it and I was a wimp I left it.  Ugg but they seemed so helpless so I took their picture and them mowed the lawn underneath them and kept the parents aways for a long time, and maybe they will think twice about a nest there next time.

Wordlesss Wednesday

Baby Hawk

Our tree at the end of the road has a nest in it that every year is taken by red tailed hawks, unless the geeses get there first, but I only remember that happening once.  We been trying to watch him grow up, usually there is a couple in there but this year looks like only one.

(June 22)

So cute and they grow so fast in a couple weeks he looked almost grown up

(July 2)

He hasn't left the nest yet but  he has been spotted sitting on the branch next to the nest, not sure if his mom and dad are trying to kick him out yet or not, getting hard to tell him/her from the adults.  We don't go by the corner much and don't want to disturb them too much so been trying not to go all the time and get pics, but if we do go by....

Eagles Nest?

So last week Neil said he thought he knew where an eagle or an owls nest is and he said its kinda in a coulee and he couldn't get there on his Bob but I could probly see it off a horse better.  So of course me and Jessie went out there and tried to find it.  We walked out of the yard heading North and out through the gate to the pasture where our hay and crop fields are.

 (for some reason I love this pic where the road splits)

 Past Neil working up my "outdoor arena" for the summer, also known as our summer fallow field.  We plow ours up once a month or so depending on weed growth rather than spray it cause we don't have a sprayer and we do have a cultivator.  Which works perfect for me cause then its nice soft dirt to ride in if I wanna.

(a 60 acre arena :)

Then on towards the dam that we walked across and it was supposedly down that coulee, but the dam was seeping so we stayed up top and there was no way I could see any nest in any big trees down there, so we just went a little further and wondered if I was imagining the directions, lol.  We walked all the way to the edge of the coulee, which Jessie didn't really like and I don't blame her I wasn't overly fond of riding that close to the edge but I just wanted to see if she would, its not so steep we couldn't go down, just much steeper than I ever care to go down.

(Jessie was pretty sure we were gonna have to walk through that GIANT lake, lol)

I came home and told Neil I never saw it and he said that was where is should be so then I was curious how I coulda have missed it if it was so big.  Well the next day I went basket stuffing at my neighbors and on the way home picked up Neil from a farther farm field and on the way back we stopped to have a look.  And its there all right but the tree/bush had leaved out so much the nest was pretty hard to see, but it sure does look big, Neil says at least 5 feet across!  Well I will have to go look this fall after the leaves fall off.  But while out there I also saw these 2 different kinds of wildflowers that are really pretty and have no idea what they are.

(the light spot is the nest, hard to see with all the leaves)

 ( pretty white flowers, kinda like a lily or crocus )

(tube like purple flowers with tiny leaves)

On the way home from that ride we made the tour around the farm field and came  into the yard from the East through the bull pasture.  I love doing that when i can make a circle and not come back the way I left.  I got a couple pics of our yard from out there but its not quite right cause there is a ridge out there so we look like we built in a hole but its not really.

 (our yard comin from the East)

(my baskets I stuffed just gotta wait for a non windy rainy day to hang them)

Wordless Wednesday -- Snack Time

Wednesday

Not a lot going on here now, its so wet we can't get much done, but we did haul 2 bulls out to our heifers and 2 up to the community pasture.  Nice to have some of them out of here,  but I sure wouldn't mind calving a little later, specially the community pasture ones, but I am not in charge so this is the way we do it.  I guess I was a little misleading yesterday as we did not have our power go out, but the power company was testing poles and he said ours were in excellent shape.  Which is too bad cause we wanted to move it cause its right in front of the living room window.  Said they are testing 7000 poles this spring.

Anyways in between packing and cleaning and organizing, I got my walk in and the ponies in the pasture were just looking at me and started comin over.  So I thought I should go out there and see them, but then I hesitated cause no one really friendly in that group except Jazz and she is still kinda unsure sometimes.  But I went anyways and scratched her neck and that was good and under her chin she liked.  And its that time of year when the bugs get bad on the belly so I thought I would try to scratch her belly.  I started at the shoulder and moved back then underneath.  She has never had a problem with me touching her belly before and she didn't now either.  Then I got the itchy spot and she really liked that.

Then Belle kept inching closer and she usually doesn't like being petted, but I know she wanted me to get her belly to so I scratched her chest then moved to behind her front legs and she walked forward so I got her itchy belly.  It was funny from a horse that refers not to be touched.

And meanwhile Disco stood just on the other side, she hasn't figured out that sometimes people just come out to pamper ponies,  I don't know if she ever had anyone do that before, she just waits for you to come to her and she is fine, but doesn't really seem to enjoy it...yet.  And Magic was on the other side of me kinda just watching to see what I was gonna do, she seems interested but not quite sure if I should be able to touch her out there yet, but she will come around I'm sure.

And after I left I seen scatchy horses, guess Magic was feeling left out after all.

I also saw that our cactus are just about to bloom, I will have to check in a couple days to see if the flowers are opened.

And the willow I saw the other day now has fuzz on it and I still don't know what it is, but should be easier to identify I would think now.

And I got a short video of the bird flying around, I did break down and look it up and I think its a Willet.  As far as I can tell that's one of the only shorebirds that has black and white wings and looks grey on the ground.  And if you have your volume up you can hear it calling and also the frogs in the background are pretty noisy!

Sunday Stills -Birds

This week we are showcasing birds for our Sunday Stills and since I don't really like birds except the big ones that don't make much noise like hawks and eagles, I tried to get those.  I actually seen a Golden Eagle this week, but didn't realize till I was driving past it and when I looked back it had flown off, too bad cause I have never gotten a picture of one of them.  But I did get this bird.  Not sure what it is cause every time I tried to get closer it would take off for places I couldn't get too.

Then I got my old reliable hawk that nest every year in the tree at our corner.  I was hoping to get both them in there, but since there are no eggs yet they both are flying around most of the time, but I did get the one in the tree.

And that's all I got this week cause I didn't want to get any silly songbirds and its been so windy its been hard to get far away pics that are clear.  But there are more over at the Sunday Stills website.

Sunday Stills -- Birds

This week our Suday Stills was all about Birds, I am sure since it was so cold this week, the birds were hibernating somewhere warm, I did see a Snowy Owl a couple times, but not till after he saw me so no pics of them.  But we do have these little birds all year round in the lilacs and got a couple good shots of them.

Our calf shed also has pigeons in it all year and yesterday they braved the cold and come and sat on top for a bit.

And since I didn't get any exciting birds, I got this:

is better than:

Have a Great Sunday all.  For more go to Sunday Stills.