Birds, Flowers, And Livestock

Summer is in full swing now and our weather was idyllic, except during the heat wave (which is now over). The herd is comfortable in the pasture and all seem to get along well. On the day I snapped this photo, Blue lay down (still wearing his muzzle) for a rest and little Lucky walked up to give him a sniff and a closer look:

The hens are living safe, comfortable lives, even though they can't go outside anymore:

The four Easter Egger bantams often hang out together. The lead hen in this photo is Blondie, the little chick who I said was too dumb to make it to adulthood. She proved me wrong, though, and has done quite well:

The Barred Rock bantams are getting kind of old for laying hens, but I have more eggs than I know what to do with anyway, so fewer eggs is a good thing:

The white fantail pigeons are laying plenty of eggs, but so far they've only raised one baby:

The new baby is up and about but getting pecked on the head like all the other baby pigeons before him or her. I even think I saw the parents do the pecking just before feeding it, so I can only observe and wonder:

Pairs still make nests and lay eggs, though they often don't hatch:

Outdoors, the north field has been hayed but the outside of the fence is filled with wildflowers - in this case, mostly Cow Vetch:

And the driveway is filling up with Pineapple Weed, just as it does every year. The aroma is most noticeable when I mow them. Pineapple Weed is related to Chamomile, but the flowers don't have the white "petals:"

 The Magic Carpet Spirea I planted last year is thriving and blooming. The Variegated Weigela behind it was just planted this year and is already blooming:

A close-up of the Spirea blossoms:

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:

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:

Scenes From The Farm In The Summer

It's been an interesting summer so far and I've spent it veering from very busy to shamefully idle. The apple crop does not look good, though I did find one branch on one tree in the orchard which is growing fruit. Also, a wild seeded tree by the road has developing apples on it:

With only nine hens left, they are more cautious than they were with the rooster to lead them far afield. They still, however, love to cross the road and search for grain which the cattle have dropped:

These are not Queen Anne's Lace, but Elderberry blossoms. Our past winter was hard on them but they seem to have rebounded nicely:

The north field is filled with Bedstraw and Cow Vetch, both blooming abundantly:

We had a dry spell so bad that the Rugosa Rose buds dried up on the plant. They looked sad, bringing to mind Miss Havisham from "Great Expectations:"

My barn has steel siding but I hired a local teen to scrape and paint the wooden trim:

He scraped the western side of the barn, but before he could do the eastern side, we had to move both the cattle and horses across the road into the north field. The cattle knew the routine and went easily, but the horses balked and fought us. Luckily, the boy's father arrived just then and gave us a hand (which is why he's holding the lead ropes). The horses immediately forgot their angst and began running, playing and gobbling grass as soon as they arrived in the north field and we set them free:

My gravel driveway is once again filled with Pineapple Weed, a form of wild Chamomile. It smells wonderful when I drive across it with the riding mower:

The ditches along the town road are full of developing cattails. I remember reading that Purple Loosestrife was pushing our wild Cattails from their native habitat, but that doesn't seem to have happened, at least not here:

Burdock is a noxious plant and real pest, shorting out electric fences and covering animals with prickly burrs . I sprayed much of it with weed killer:

In the south field, Black-Eyed Susans, Bedstraw, Red Clover and Oxeye Daisy bloomed:

This hen has taken a liking to hanging out with the pigeons. She sometimes perches here, then hops through the window to join them. It does no harm and is easy for me to get her from there to the chicken coop:

Around The Farm, A June Wrap-Up

June was a busy month, and one in which I never got completely caught up with all that I'd hoped to do. But on the plus side, we got enough rain to end the drought which the month of May had brought. My Rugosa Roses blossomed profusely, sending their aroma all around the yard and attracting bees:

The gravel driveway burst into bloom of another kind - with these aromatic plants, which I last year called Chamomile. A closer search of my field guide this year told me that they are really Pineapple Weed because their crushed leaves smell like pineapple. They are indeed a Chamomile, but rayless (without the white rays, often incorrectly called "petals"):

My happy hens pecked and scratched all over the yard, but were especially fond of the area near the Mock Orange and old fashioned rose bushes:

I let the dogs out one morning, only to run back into the house for my camera, so I could snap a photo of the rosy dawn in the eastern sky, with the Rugosa roses blooming at the bottom of the picture:

I spent several days mowing with the Bush Hog:

I mowed a swath around the outside of the north field's fence line and then, happy with the results, mowed a swath around the inside. This was to keep weeds from growing up and shorting out the electric fence:

Then I began mowing the entire area of the most southern field, thinking it would discourage the broadleaf weeds which the cows won't eat and encourage the grasses which they do eat:


It seemed to be a good system but I worried about ground nesting birds. I'd almost convinced myself that because the Bush Hog cuts so high, it wouldn't hurt the birds. But then I saw this baby, still unable to fly, hopping and running away from the big, loud tractor. I stopped, put the baby back where it seemed to have begun, then put away the tractor and Brush Hog until at least July 4th, by which time all the nestlings should be flying. I think the baby was a Savannah Sparrow:


I backed the Brush Hog into the barn and unhooked it, this time with a reinforced furniture dolly beneath its front end so hooking it back up in the future will be easier:


I caught this little hen (lower left) eating rose petals and wondered if that would ensure the highest quality, gourmet eggs:

With the lovely June weather, I opened up the windows for the fantail pigeons almost every day:

And I spotted this butterfly while cutting brush with a chainsaw alongside the fence. I sent the photo and other information to Butterflies And Moths Of North America and they identified it as Polygonia interrogationis, which has the odd common name of "Question Mark." The species ID page is at http://www.butterfliesandmoths.org/species/Polygonia-interrogationis if you'd like to read more: