Ravens

Here are a pair of ravens that come through the farm several times a day. They check out the compost pile, clean up any spilled grain the sheep have left, see if the ducks have laid any eggs that we have failed to find. They are big elegant birds. These two landed in the birch tree outside the kitchen window and I took the picture through the window because I knew if I opened the door to go outside they'd fly away. There's always just the two of them except for a couple of weeks in summer when they are accompanied by their very noisy offspring. I was recently watching "Making of The Games of Thrones" and the animal handler was saying how much he enjoyed working with the ravens that are used as messenger birds in the story.

It was almost warm today. I went out and weeded the perennial cut flower beds and got wonderfully muddy. It felt so good to work in the dirt. All around the flowers are sure it is finally spring. There's a first little daffodil, one of the February Golds, almost out.
And the forsythia branches are laced with yellow buds and one or two flowers already out. By tomorrow there will be lots of them.
And everywhere crocuses are in bloom. The Varied Thrushes are starting to sing in the mornings and the female red winged blackbirds showed up yesterday. The males have been here since January but the ladies are late this year.

Birds

I took my camera on a walk today and came upon another owl being mobbed by robins. This time it was a Great Horned Owl. It sat there so patiently while the robins dived at it and scolded.
On the way back I walked through the pasture and watched the cowbirds ride around on the backs of the sheep. These birds apparently developed with the herds of bison on the Great Plains. They fascinate me as do all brood parasites. How do they know how to be cowbirds. They don't grow up acting like warblers or wrens or whatever sort of bird raised them. All nature and very little nurture here.

Coming home from the mainland last weekend I photographed this cormorant sitting on a nest in a clump of pilings at the ferry dock in Anacortes. The birds have found the niches in the piling structure as good as cliff faces for nesting. There were dozens of them. You can see an egg under this bird.

The Owl and the Robins

I heard the robins out in the woods making the call they make when an owl's near and went to see if I could find it. It was a barred owl sitting on a branch about 10 feet above the ground.
The robins were shrieking and flying at it. Half an hour later they were still at it.

Local Drummer

The other day we heard this really load drumming sound coming from the barn. I figured it was a woodpecker of some sort but couldn't find it until I looked up and saw this flicker drumming on the metal roof. He had a found a place to make a really big noise.

Birds and Flowers

All of a sudden changes are everywhere. Baby lettuces can be set outside, the cherry and plum trees are in full bloom, there are tulips instead of daffodils. The violet green swallows came back today. When they first show up they fly all around the barn and chitter madly as if they are really glad that the trip is over and they are here again. They and several barn swallows nest in our barn every year.
And the new leaves on the wild Nootka roses are releasing their wonderful spicy scent into the air in the evening. These roses have scented foliage and as there are acres of them on the island this time of year the air is filled with their incredible scent.

And, oh yeah, the eagle is back harassing the chickens in the early morning. He/she sits on top of the chicken tractor cage and the chickens go mad. We wake up to the noise and charge outside and chase the eagle away. I wish I had a time lapse camera to get a picture of the thing. Bald eagles are huge and amazing when they are sitting on the ground (or on a chicken cage).

Hummingbirds

Well, the hummingbirds are here. I understand that they follow the flowering currant up the coast. And ours started blooming a couple of days before I heard the first hummingbird zoom by. They are such feisty little things. They fight and squabble and divebomb each other. I was sitting on the back porch tearing up strips for rag rugs and ducking every once in a while as one of them would dive just over my head. Theser are rufous hummingbirds.

Onion Plants

Here's a box of 2500 onion plants. Joel has spent much of this last week getting them planted. Ailsa Craigs, Red Candy Apples, Big Daddys and Red Zeppelins. The first two are sweet onions and the last two winter keepers. We sell a lot of onions and eat a lot of them, too. We're still working on the last of last year's keepers.

The female red winged blackbirds arrived yesterday. They are a month late this year along with a lot of other stuff. The ladies usually show up about Valentine's Day. The males and females apparently spend the winter in separate flocks. The males were here in late December as usual, and I had been afraid that the flock of females had succumbed to the hard winter. I wish I knew where they spend the winter. They are often here eating sunflower seeds until October. The seeds in the bird feeder is disappearing twice as fast but I figure the female blackbirds need it. They are the ones who are going to be laying the eggs. I have read that birds in areas with feeders actually fledge more young. I often stop feeding the birds about now but with everything being so delayed and the blackbirds just getting here I think I'll keep the feeders filled for another month at least.

Spring Snow

It really is the light that tells the birds and plants that spring is about here. My snowdrops and crocuses and early anemones are in bloom, the Filbert tree has lovely catkins on it and everywhere I look there are more and more birds every day, here at my feeder and out on the water. They are on the move to where ever they will nest and breed. I heard a high up flock of geese heading north the other day. The chickens have started to lay again which is stimulated by increasing daylight. Nevertheless in spite of that it snowed hard for several hours today. It finally turned to rain and all disappeared but for a few hours the herb garden look so pretty
In the middle of the snowstorm I looked out at the feeder and saw twice as many red-winged blackbirds as we've had for the last month or so. There are at least a dozen here now, they must have arrived today in the middle of the snow. All males, the females aren't here yet. They usually arrive a month or so after the first males.

First Signs

It's been cold for the last few days and I have been mostly sitting close to the fire knitting or reading English murder mysteries (one of my not so secret vices). But today it warmed up to 40 degrees (F) and I ventured outside to explore a bit and found the snowdrops up and about to burst into bloom. It is always so nice to see that something has faith in the arrival of spring.
And the red winged blackbirds are back. There are 7 males and 1 female in this first bunch. It is interesting that there is a female with them as usually the males come first and then about a month later the females show up. This lady wants to get a jump on the season. Good for her.

On the Way Home

On the way home fromm Friday Harbor yesterday I caught this picture of Turtleback Mountain on Orcas Island with a dusting of fresh snow on its back. At this angle you can see how it got its name.
And this young seagull landed on the boat and rode along with us for a while. This is the third time that a young seagull has ridden along with us at about the same place in the last couple of weeks. I can't be absolutely certain it is the same bird but my suspicions are that it is.

Apples

We have a great apple crop this year. Today Joel picked the Kings, getting 12, 40# boxes off our two trees. This is probably more than we can eat or sell, but I'll take boxes to the kids and the sheep will get their share. And we will eat apples. Tonight we had fried apples and onions and I will make apple butter and apple catsup and Joel plans on canning apple slices. We will make applesauce and apple pies and apple crisp all winter.
While Joel was up in one of the King trees this Pileated woodpecker was up in the other. They show up every fall just as these apples are getting ripe and peck holes in all the apples at the top of the trees. Since these old trees are so very tall that we never can get the apples way up at the top we don't grumble at having to share.
Meanwhile back at the house I was working on another pastel rag rug on the same warp I've been working on for a couple of weeks. This is a combination of a medium blue and pink print and a pastel plaid in similar colors. I think that so far it is the prettiest of the batch.

More Birds

There seems to be one last hummingbird hanging around instead of heading off for South America. I have heard stories of hummingbirds beginning to overwinter in this area but haven't actually seen any in the winter. Don't know if this one is planning on staying or just got left behind and is stoking up on honeysuckle nectar for the long trip.
Most of our irrigation water comes from this small pond which gets mighty low toward the end of summer. It is always, full or low, a favorite feeding place for Great Blue Herons. They are such stately birds on the ground and look so awkward as they take off with those long legs dangling.

Cowbirds and Crickets

While Siri and I were sitting at the Orcas ferry dock after the wedding waiting for the ferry to Friday Harbor we noticed two little baby birds on a log next to the road. They were fluttering around in typical baby bird fashion, plaintively asking to be fed. Imagine our surprise when a tiny little yellow bird, about half their size flew up and fed one of them. They could only be cowbird babies. Cowbirds are brood parasites. The females lay eggs in the nests of other birds who then raise the young often to the detriment of their own young. The bird that was feeding them was, I think, a yellow warbler. Cowbirds fascinate me because in spite of being raised by all sorts of other birds, warblers, finches, and song sparrows for example, they grow up to know how to be cowbirds and to mate with other cowbirds not with members of the species that raised them. We often see cowbirds sitting on top of our sheep. They wait for insects to be disturbed by the sheep's grazing and then fly down to the ground to feed on them.

P.S. We heard the first cricket this evening. That is the real beginning of fall for me. This is the time of year, half way between the summer solstice and the fall equinox, the traditional beginning of fall in the Celtic calendar, that begins to feel like fall. The light has changed, the angle of the sun different than high summer. The air smells different and you hear crickets. This is actually my favorite time of year with the imminent harvest with its feeling of wealth and well being.

Eagle

Here's our visiting eagle flying off after he'd landed next to the little chickens' pen. We woke up hearing the chickens yelling at him and heard him claw at the wire on the pen. Joel charged out and he (she) flew off but landed in a nearby tree giving me a chance to grab the camera. I'm not sure what we are going to do about this guy. I'm not willingly letting him have my chickens.

Living with wildlife (and chickens)

I woke up this morning hearing a ruckus from the chickens. I looked out the window and saw the rooster, out of his pen, running for the bushes near the house. I got dressed and went out to see what was up and startled a mature bald eagle who had just killed one of my Barred Rock hens. The chickens are kept in small pens called chicken tractors that are moved around the garden where they can eat bugs and scratch up weeds. The wire at the end of this pen was loose. It looked like the chickens had tried to escape the eagle by forcing their way out of the pen. Last spring I chased an eagle away twice who was chasing my chickens, probably the same one. Once it actually grabbed one and tried to take off with it. But a full grown Buff Orpington, like the ones in the picture, is too heavy for an eagle to get off the ground with, so as soon as it saw me it dropped the chicken, who ran for cover and survived the experience. I rarely let the chickens loose to run around just for that reason. In the evening when we are around I will often let them out for a couple of hours. Once chickens are used to sleeping in their pen they'll go back there when it gets dark and I can shut them up again.

Birds

I've been watching this pair of flickers peck a hole in the top of this dead white fir tree. This morning I heard them working at it and set up the camera on my tripod and got a picture of one of them in front of the hole. Well, this afternoon we heard more pecking and went to check only to find a Red-breasted Nuthatch in the hole throwing pieces of wood out of it and obviously settling in. I'll keep an eye on the situation and see who ends up nesting in it.

Bird Nest Cat

Zebu is one of our older barn cats who a couple of winters ago decided that in her old age the fire in the stove looked mighty cozy and maybe those human beings weren't as scary as she'd thought before. So she has been spending much of her time sitting by the stove purring. She'll let you pet her or pick her up but doesn't really like it much. She is one of those long haired cats that leave little bits of fluff behind wherever they've been. I'm always picking up bits of Zebu fur and tossing it in the wastebasket. Well, today I saw a little chickadee picking up bits of her fur and carrying it off obviously for nest building. So now when I see a bit of white fur on the rug I'm carrying it outside and putting it where it can be found by the birds. And after checking back most of it is gone.

Tulips, Mosquitoes, Hummingbirds, Swallows, and

We've had company all week, my oldest daughter and her family so we haven't done much gardening and I haven't done much weaving or knitting. While they were here the weather finally began to feel springlike. The frogs in the marsh are very, very loud at night, I've seen the first hummingbirds at the flowering currant bushes as well as a white crowned sparrow at the feeder. I heard a common yellow throat this morning. And this evening we looked up and saw a huge flock of swallows, maybe 40 or 50 birds swirling around in the air over our clearning. They looked a lot like violet-green swallows but they were fast and high and could have been tree swallows which are very similar. I 'm not aware of having seen them here before but all the information I could Google about them mentioned them flying in large flocks. So that was exciting. I did see several pairs of violet-greens down at the dock on Monday and two at the farm yesterday. We usually have 3 or 4 pair nesting here. the barn swallows come later and I haven't seen any of them yet. We also saw the first mosquito last evening but we also saw a bat flying around. They are about the best mosquito eaters around.

The first tulips are in bloom, the early Greggii ones with the striped leaves. And I got a big box of bulbs, gladiolus, lilies, dahlias and onion sets. So we have our work cut out for us. A few warm days and the soil will dry out enough for some serious tilling.