Around The Farm

The pigeons are social animals, and the 21 of them in their room have a busy society with lots of activity and interactions. I guess that's why they aren't interested in going outdoors:

 The chickens would like to go outdoors but I won't let them because we have so many hungry foxes:

 The Rugosa Roses are still blooming:

 And the horses and cows are living a summer of leisure:

 Remember the stray kitten I presented a couple days ago? His brother, looking like an identical twin, showed up at the door two days later. Luckily, the Potsdam Shelter was so pleased with the first one that they were happy to take kitten number two also:

 And wildflowers are blooming everywhere. This is Common Cinquefoil:

 Catnip by the barn door. Last year I harvested most of it for my cats, but this year I'll at least wait until it drops seed. It'd be nice to have more Catnip around:

 Heal-All, a member of the mint family which grows in the lawn:

 And White Clover, also abundant in the lawn:

 Northern Bedstraw, one of our most abundant wildflowers. In this case, it was draped over an old tree stump so artistically that I thought a photo was in order:

 Pineapple-Weed, which grows in the gravel driveway or where concrete is cracked - basically where nothing else wants to grow. It really does smell like pineapple when stepped or driven on:

 The tiniest yellow flowers are Least Hop Clover. You can judge its tiny size by the White Clover and Pineapple-Weed also in the photo:

Summertime Around The Farm

I had just finished doing chores one morning when I saw a bird on a gate post, singing. He stayed there, singing a fancy, flute-like song, so I got out my camera. By then I had seen enough to recognize it as a Bobolink. This was only the second time in my life I've seen a Bobolink, the first time I've heard and recognized its song:

The five baby chicks were growing rapidly and I had to fix them up a bigger brooder after only two weeks. Introducing them to the rest of the flock will be tricky as I don't want them to be attacked, but I'll figure something out:

And speaking of the rest of the flock, they are doing well, ranging far and wide over the property. They travel across the lawns and into the hay field and pasture. In fact, they go everywhere and are especially fond of going inside the barn. All I need to do is leave a door open for a minute:

The old fashioned Peonies have bloomed:

And a yellow Day-Lily appeared in the middle of one clump of Peonies:

And the Mock Orange produced perhaps the most beautiful display of all times:

This variety doesn't have much aroma, but I can't imagine a more beautiful or bountiful blossoming:

The Mock Orange bush has grown to a large size and sits close to the old fashioned rose I saved:

 My "lawn" is filled with wildflowers, so I took a few photos while mowing. This is Hawkweed, species unknown:

 Maiden Pink. It was really prettier than the photo would indicate:

 Least Hop Clover:

White Clover. My camera seldom gets useable pictures of white or yellow flowers, so I was happy when this one turned out. It may be a common flower, but that doesn't mean it isn't something special:

Fields And Wild Turkey On Beebe Hill

I was hiking up Beebe Hill with my four younger dogs on a hot, sunny mid-week afternoon. We took the old service road instead of the forest foot trails and this was providing me with lots of wildflowers to photograph and attempt to identify. This one was easy - Yarrow, Achillea millefolium:

And there were lots of ripe raspberries to eat. And eat I certainly did:

And then I encountered yet another flower with which I wasn't familiar. This plant was one I don't think I've ever seen before. It looked vaguely like what we used to call Yellow Rocket or Wild Mustard. I've looked it up now and decided that it is absolutely, positively - a mystery to me:

The dogs ran happily into a clearing, full of playfulness, and I followed them:

Now this may look to you like a picture of not much of anything, but that's only because I was too slow getting my camera out. A very large turkey was standing in the field and all my dogs were uninterested (or at least came when called) except for little Clover. She wanted to chase the turkey which jumped up and down but either wouldn't or couldn't fly (it was HUGE!). Finally the turkey ran off into the woods with Clover on its heels. The turkey easily weighed 10 times what Clover weighed and could have put a real whoopin' on her. Perhaps she'd have learned a lesson if that had happened. As it turned out, I fear she learned that chasing wildlife is fun and I'm now going to have to somehow train her otherwise:

The turkey crisis over, we continued on the trail up Beebe Hill and I kept watching for wildflowers such as this Red Clover, Trifolium pretense:

Another abundant Clover was this Smaller Hop Clover, Trifolium procumbens. I also saw many much smaller Hop Clovers and assumed they were the same species. But I just learned, while searching my Field Guide, that the tiny ones were most likely Least Hop Clover, Trifolium dubium:

Despite it being such a hot and sunny day, I stayed out of the woods and continued on the service road. The temperatures were nonetheless a good 10 degrees less than what I'd left behind in Albany. Oh, the wondrous benefits of forests:

There were lots of Dragonflies, but only this emerald and black jeweled beauty held still long enough for me to get a photo:

I passed by lots of Steeplebush, Spiraea tomentosa. This attractive flower was new to me a few years ago when I discovered it on Harvey Mountain, just down the road from Beebe Hill:

I'm afraid my photo of this plant was not good enough for a real identification, but I was sure it was in the Mint family and a very common lawn weed. I'm reasonably sure it's Heal-All, also known as Selfheal, Prunella Vulgaris. Wouldn't Prunella Vulgaris be a wonderful name for a female villain? Anyway, we were well on our way up Beebe Hill by this time and approaching an important decision. I'll post more tomorrow: