In Other News From Around The Farm

I have observed, in the years I've been here, that different bird species tend to appear and disappear at various times of the year. I believe that some species seem abundant when they first arrive in the spring, when they're actively breeding with the males singing, or when the current babies are fledged and moving out on their own. I believe the latter is the case with Barn Swallows, which I hardly see at all until mid to late summer. Then they are lined up on every overhead wire and, I think, teaching their youngsters to live independently. The formerly invisible birds sometimes are lined up on wires twenty deep beginning about early August:

I got my far southern field hayed this year by a neighbor who just purchased the equipment. He mowed and put the grass in windrows, raked it and baled it:

It was miserably hot work and he put in long hours, agreeing to do it for half the hay and also promising to help me get my bales into the barn:

In the end, I got 80 bales and he got 72:


I didn't have to do anything except at the end, when I drove his tractor around the field while he collected the bales, threw them up onto the wagon and then stacked them neatly.  The bigger, more productive north field should be ready for cutting in September:

The wildflower, Bouncing Bet, a member of the Pink family, is once again blooming in my yard:

And right next to the Bouncing Bet, the Rugosa Roses are still putting on quite a show:

The fantail pigeons seem healthy and happy:

Who, me?

They are paired up, nesting and laying eggs, though so far not a single egg has hatched:

I believe they are too inbred to produce much anymore. This may be a blessing because I really don't need any more pigeons. I do worry about our marauding foxes getting into the pigeon coop, but so far it hasn't happened:

I found this wildflower blooming in the south field, took a photo and looked it up when I got back to the house. It turned out to be Square-Stemmed Monkey-flower, a member of the Snapdragon family: