This post began as a general farm post until I noticed that every photo involved birds in some way. The fantail pigeons are successfully raising another couple of squabs. They were just a few days old when I took this photo:
All the fantail pigeons seem happy and healthy:
The bantams run out to see the cows when I first let them out in the morning:
Only a couple of the pigeons have been going outside, but their numbers have been increasing. I've noticed that they usually only go out in the morning, when the weather and the metal roof are not yet too hot:
And sometimes the pigeons and chickens hang out together:
And speaking of hot metal roofs:
A rare sight - six fantail pigeons, all the way up on the barn roof:
Here are those same two babies, just a few days older than the first photo:
A regular barnyard assembly, this photo taken from my back porch:
The chickens don't miss an inch of the mowed part of the property. In this case, they were searching for bugs and other edibles in the front yard:
And speaking of birds, I was on the riding mower along the side of the road when a brown bird flushed out and fluttered about three feet away. Afraid I'd injured a bird, I got out to investigate. It turned out to be a baby Snipe, or Woodcock:
He was a cute little fella (or girl), but clearly not happy to see me. Snipes are not often seen, and even less often seen this closely. I was glad it wasn't hurt and grateful to have had such a close view of a special wild bird:
Hi Bill,
ReplyDeleteI've thoroughly enjoyed your blog to date; the dogs and the cows and calves, the cats and the doves and chickens including your smiling face in several posts that come after this.
Though I can rarely name the flowers I post on my blog, loving nature more than academia, I couldn't resist researching the difference between a snipe and a woodcock, for I was sure this lovely bird pictured here is a woodcock. After researching the difference, I can share with you the fact that snipes have a neck, a flexible downward pointing beak and are a shorebird unlike the woodcock that is also classed as a shorebird but lives in forest and field. I had occasion to watch a woodcock on a farm road flirt with the tire of the truck I was in which was hilarious. To this day I can't imagine how it could confuse it for a lady woodcock (woodhen?).
You are right that my bird was a Woodcock, though most locals call them Snipes. There is also a Wilson's Snipe (called Common Snipe in my day), which is closely related and very similar looking. Both live around here in the summer and winter to the south. They are both shorebirds because they are in the Sandpiper family. It sure is confusing, and all the more so because the word, "Snipe," is used for a number of birds and imaginary animals (as in a "Snipe Hunt," a joke played on first timers at summer camps all over the country. I am pleased that you took the time to research this. You got me to double check it, so we have both benefited. Thanks for adding your comment.
DeleteBill