Sunday, June 7, 2009

kids time five!




Bella had triplets--2 girls and a boy. I thought she had 5 or 6 in there she was so wide but I was wrong! They are all brown with white and black markings.





Charlotte had twins--a girl and a boy. Both white with beautiful markings. This is Calico. We missed both births, but obviously the mamas didn't need us.






The girls are over the moon!























Friday, May 22, 2009

cowbird fledged


The cowbird fledged. The chickadee was alive when the cowbird fledged, but we think the parents stopped feeding it in the nest at that point. They called and called but the poor little thing wasn't ready and died. The cowbird is adorable in an ugly sort of way. It hung around for a few days being fed by the parents before flying away.

Thursday, May 21, 2009

cowbird update

feathers on the birds and . . .
one very pregnant, double wide, hot and grumpy goat!

Thursday, May 14, 2009

the cowbird and the chickadee

So we have nesting chickadees in our front nesting box again this spring. We think it's the same pair, learned to tolerate us, because when we take down the box for a look, mama no longer flies away. So mostly what we've been seeing is the mama bird.

But a few days ago Sophie saw her fly out and went to look at the eggs. This is what she saw:

One of these does not look like the others! Although our web research tells us that cowbirds rarely lay an egg in a cavity nest, one sneaky cowbird did just that. The bigger darker egg is a cowbird egg, inside is a future cowbird nesting destined to hatch first and out compete it's chickadee "siblings". My first instinct was to lift the egg out with a spoon but they are native birds and they are protected so I let it stay.
Yesterday we saw this inside the box:

One hungry cowbird with it's mouth open waiting for lunch, sitting on top of a smaller chickadee. The cowbirds are not only first out of the egg, bigger, and stronger, but their mouths are red which guides the parents to feed it first.
We put out some meal worms to make it easier for the birds to keep up with the needs of all the nestlings and are hoping for the best.


Saturday, February 7, 2009

Sunday, January 25, 2009

vegetable dying


Aren't they pretty? Rebecca is doing her 4h visual presentation this year on vegetable dying. She did these with beets, red cabbage, charcoal, tea, and tumeric.

Saturday, January 24, 2009

Sophie's half birthday


Sorry to have disappeared like that--I've discoved the fun and time suck that is facebook. But I'm back with this photo of Sophie on her half birthday with her half cake. She was so excited this year for her half birthday to come and really had fun with this cake.