Wonderful, Glorious Summer

I was using the riding mower when I saw this tiny baby bird in the grass. I stopped to see what I could do:

The little thing was clearly a Cliff Swallow, too young to fly although it tried. I knew there were two Cliff Swallow nests nearby, in the eave of the milk room, and I wondered if I could put it back into one of them:

Alas, both nests were gone. I have no idea what could have happened to them or what, if any, predator could have destroyed the nests. That's when I saw a second Cliff Swallow baby:

  They were not happy to be picked up and it appeared that both parents were circling overhead, scolding me, so I put them safely out of the way of the mower but near the old site of the nests. The next day I only saw one baby and never did learn if one or both survived. Swallows are wonderful parents, though, so I figured the babies had a chance:

One side of the pear tree is gearing up for a bumper crop and the other side is producing also, though not as heavily:

The sun was just coming up and breaking through the clouds one morning, and I decided to take photos of the glorious skies:

Living amid such beauty is one of life's great joys:

People have marveled at the heavens from the beginning, and I continue to marvel now:

I find it easy to see how people find meaning and inspiration in the beauty of the sky. It certainly is majestic:

My Tree Hydrangea is beginning to bloom. Many of last year's dried flowers were still attached, so I clipped them off to make room for the new flowers:

Goldenrod has begun blooming. There are so many species that I don't even try to identify them although I do notice the different styles of flower heads as the season goes on:

Joe-Pye-Weed is mixed in along with the Goldenrod. What a summer this has been!

Plants And Birds

Wild Blackberries burst into bloom everywhere I was unable to mow - or were they Black Raspberries? I went to the internet for some ID pointers, but found them scarce and difficult to use. Then I found a website which was wonderfully helpful and easy to use. It confirmed that I have Blackberries, not Black Raspberries. I highly recommend this site:

My north field was getting very tall and my neighbor decided it was time for its first cutting:

 It was so thick and heavy that it was slow and difficult to mow:

 This was some seriously tall, thick, lush, heavy hay! As of this writing, the first part of the field has been cut and will be turned over to dry (tedded) today. About 3/4 of the field remains to be cut:

 My Rugosa Roses suffered badly from a fungus last year, along with the apple trees and one of the Ninebark bushes. But this year they continued blooming faithfully:

 So far, I see no fungus except on the one Ninebark which was affected last year:

 The Variegated Weigela was a dead looking stick a few weeks ago. Now it is blooming!

 The white Peonies (and one new red one) are building up to a flowering frenzy:

 And the Snowball bushes are doing extraordinarily well:

 I had no Cliff Swallow nests under the milk room eaves this year - until now. I found two adjacent mud nests, filled with birds. As soon as I snapped this photo, 6 to 8 birds burst from those holes and flew around, scolding me. I hope they keep the biting flies in check. The cows and horses (and I) will be grateful:

 In the lawn and pasture are many of these tiny white flowers, each petal split into two. They are Lesser Stitchwort, a kind of Chickweed. The grass head is Redtop:

 And of course the big, beautiful Red Clover. 'Tis the season:

Spring Is Bustin' Out All Over

I'd already planted Day Lilies and Morden Roses - and then three Variegated Weigela plants arrived. They were bare root and didn't look very impressive, so I planted them immediately and began hauling buckets of water from the barn so I could keep them watered:

 I went out to the barn one day and found a baby Swallow fluttering on the ground. I remembered that last year I'd had Cliff Swallows and their nest was nearby, so I scooped up the baby to put it back in the mud nest. Alas, the nest wasn't there anymore:

 I saw Cliff Swallows coming and going from the eaves of the milk room, but any nest must have been inside the "attic" where I could neither see it nor reach it. I left the baby on the ground near where the Swallows seemed most active, hoping they'd keep it fed. The next morning, it was still fluttering in the lawn. By evening, it was gone. It was almost ready to fly, so perhaps it survived:

 The bi-color Daffodils bloomed first, then the solid yellow ones:

 Our fine weather inspired the cattle and horses to lounge around, enjoying the sun and growing grass:

 If I remember correctly, the small leafed Rhododendron just outside my door has never before bloomed, but it finally began to flower this year. I wasn't much impressed with them, though:

 But that's because I was too early. The next day, the flowers began to open and I think I've identified it as a PJM Rhododendron:


 A surveyor was working in the large cornfield across the road so I walked over to chat, thinking the owner might have sold the field for someone's new home. No, it was simply being surveyed for the people next door to know their correct fence line:

 The automatic poultry waterer broke one day and I scrambled to find something with which to give the pigeons water until I could buy a new one. I temporarily used two trough-type chick feeders with the tops open. Of course the pigeons love to bathe and were splashing wildly in it within a few minutes, but enough water to drink remained (even if it wasn't very clean). I got them a new waterer the next morning:

 Ah, spring. It leads to thoughts of love and.....um, other things:

 I planted two plum trees when I first moved to the farm and one has borne fruit each year. The other, however, has not. But this year, it flowered early, so I am hopeful:

 The other plum tree and, in fact, all the other fruit trees, had not even a suggestion of blooms yet, but this new plum tree was going all out. I hope the fruit is early also:

Mid-Summer In The North Country

Even for this northern location, it's been a cool summer. It's also been a wet summer, with rain almost every day. Many corn fields are stunted. Most hay fields are growing wildly, but the farmers are having trouble finding two sunny days in a row when they can cut and bale the hay. It's been a wonderful summer for beautiful sunrise skies, though maybe that's largely because of when I go out to do the morning chores. Whatever the reason, I revel in the glorious dawn scenery:

 I've had a great deal of trouble identifying the swallows I've had this year. I know at least some of them are Cliff Swallows, and it's possible they all are. They began congregating in mid-July, perhaps preparing to migrate. I've already noticed flocks of Redwing Blackbirds and the disappearance of Grackles, Meadowlarks and other species. When the swallows collect into my yard, it's quite a spectacle. They sit on the wire for awhile, then begin feeding with dives, circles and swoops:

 I thought I had finally captured a photo of my baby Cliff Swallows, but when I saw this one fly away, thought maybe it was mother swallow, starting a new nest. They seem to feed the babies from outside the nest, clinging to the doorway, so it would be unusual for her to enter unless she had eggs or newly hatched chicks inside. But I haven't seen her in the nest since that day:

 The Rugosa Roses slowed their blooming, but the wild Bouncing Bet which grew beneath them took over, producing pinkish/white clusters of flowers:

 You can see why Bouncing Bet is sometimes called Wild Phlox:

 I decided that I would not cut the wild Catnip this year until it had flowered and seeded, allowing it to multiply. I haven't yet pulled out the Wild Cucumber vine growing there, but I should do that also to encourage the catnip. Besides making my cats happy, I years ago used to feed Catnip to my hens. The eggs they then laid were best I ever tasted:

 The old fashioned rose I rescued is still blooming (and so its baby, begun from a cutting). You can see that there's still clusters of buds to produce even more flowers:

 The baby Fantail Pigeon was bullied and pecked by the big birds, and I never saw its parents feeding or protecting it. Nonetheless, it had to have been fed because it kept growing. The black spot on its head is from being pecked, and so is the lack of feathers on its back. It was in a new place every time I entered the room, so I eventually built a little nest for it.

 One of the parents finally fed it while I was there, a blessed relief for me because I want the little bird to live. As of this writing, it is still living, growing and developing more feathers:

 I also prepared more nests which are up on shelves, as the birds nesting on the floor seems to be the basis of their problems. So far, however, they refuse to use them:

 Just as the yellow Asiatic Lilies began to fade, the orange ones began to bloom:

 We've had so much rain that mushrooms popped up in my lawn. This photo also demonstrates that much of my lawn is not grass. I'm happy to have a green lawn, whatever species it is composed of:

Bush Hogging The North Field

I went out early in the morning to bush hog the north field, but when I got to the barn, I saw these two baby Starlings on the ground, next to the milk room. A Starling nests somewhere up in the insulation below the milk room roof, entering through the eave, each year. I had no way to put the babies back into the nest and could only hope the mother would find them, so all I could do was continue on into the barn and began my day:

 I have been seeing lots of Swallows, more than ever before, and had trouble identifying them. I caught this one on a wire and got a photo, deciding it was a Tree Swallow. I've also been seeing Swallows colored like Barn Swallows but without the long, forked tails. Now that I've got a nest of them, I have identified them as Cliff Swallows. The neighbors say they have Barn Swallows, but I haven't seen the nests. I don't know why the population explosion of Swallows, but I love it! This year there are fewer biting flies than previous years, and I think the swallows' swallowing them is the reason:

 Then I began bush hogging the north field, stopping to photograph wildflowers such as these beautiful Chicory flowers. They are the bluest of the blue. That is Pineapple Weed below them:

 I also stopped to spray paint any rocks which broke the surface of the ground:

 Common Milkweed, a problem plant as far as cattle are concerned, but with perhaps the sweetest perfume of any wildflower. And of course Monarch Butterflies require Milkweeds:

 I had two types of Thistles in the north field. I sprayed most of them with weed killer, but couldn't get them all. Bush hogging (I hope) will cut these off before they flower and produce seed. I searched my field guide and decided this kind was Canada Thistle:

 And this giant, invasive monster was, I decided, the aptly named Bull Thistle. They grow huge and they grow fast:

 

 While I was anxious to bush hog the thistles, I hated to do the same to the white Musk Mallows:

And the lovely pink Musk Mallows. It had to be done, though:

 Cow Vetch is everywhere and grows so low that the bush hog scarcely touched it:

 When I was all done, I removed the bush hog from the tractor and parked them both inside the barn. I was on my way back to the house when I saw a Starling flutter up from the ground. Then I noticed the babies were missing. Did some animal eat them? No, the mother had moved them around the corner, tucking them into the grass between the milk room and a lilac bush. A sad postscript to this story - the next morning, I discovered that a predator had gotten both babies: