Around The Farm In April

This is a mix of photos from around the farm at various times, beginning with this Great Blue Heron's nest which my sister and I stopped to watch from the road:

Another view of the Heron rookery. This tree had two nests plus a Heron at its very top:

My sister and I also stopped to watch a Woodcock beside the road. We watched for some time, fascinated by its fantastic coloration, its odd bill and its bouncing, bobby walk. My picture is on the left, an internet picture on the right:

The chickens cover every inch around the house and barn many times per day. They sure do get a lot of mileage!:

And the little bantams love to come inside the barn to cool off and find tasty treats:

They have also begun laying eggs in the bedding hay, a habit I have come to like because I know where to find the eggs and because the eggs are clean when I find them. Some days there are only two:

Other days there are up to nine eggs. I eat very few and give the rest to my neighbors:

This rooster has been non-combative, though his father was a real problem. I suspect that my ignoring this rooster and not trying to make a pet of it have made the difference:

My strange fascination with miniatures found a couple of new items recently. This tiny birthday cake came with four matching cupcakes:

A roast ham and what I think is supposed to be a plate of short ribs with vegetables:

This Post Is For The Birds

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:

Exploring A New Route Home From The Farm

Google Blogger was down for two days and all posts scheduled for those days were never displayed. So I've rescheduled them. They resume today with this post:

Friday morning dawned and it was time for me to collect the dogs and drive back to Albany. But I already knew that a large section of Route 73 was closed and the radio was telling me that Lake Flower was flooding its banks and closing roads in the town of Saranac Lake. More highway closings were happening all over the Adirondacks. I decided to drive south on Route 56 to Route 3 to Tupper Lake and from there take Route 30 south through Long Lake. I hoped I'd avoid the flooded and closed highways in the high peaks region. The downside was that in previous trips along this route, I found very few opportunities for doggy rest stops. But I must have been more observant this time as I found many State owned lands along the way. My first stop was at Cold Brook. The brook was very high, but still there were good places for the dogs to do their thing:

I kept the dogs away from the rushing waters. I certainly didn't want any adventurous pooches falling in:

We returned to the car and continued on our way for a while. But when I saw a State Land sign and a small, one lane dirt road entering the forest, I just had to stop and give it a try. I drove into the woods a ways and parked:

This was Adirondack forest at its finest and the dogs ran and sniffed and peed and pooped. Since their was no one else around and no road nearby, I just relaxed and let the dogs have the run of the place:

Clover led the way with Fergus and Seamus not too far behind her:

Winky poked along, making it a bit difficult for me to keep all the dogs together. But he was happy and enjoying the sights and smells:

Wally is becoming pokey also, and I suspect that his eyesight is failing. But he still handles himself well and is very happy to be out in the woods:

We walked farther into the forest, hearing only our own noises and the wild sounds of birds and swaying trees:
The forest was lovely and the dogs were snooping around when a Woodcock flew up and away. It's at about the 31 second mark in this video. It was much closer in real life than it looks. Oddly, neither the dogs nor the bird appeared at all excited:


I began collecting the dogs and moving them in the direction of the car. They were busy smelling the woods, however, and not anxious to be locked up again in an automobile:

But when we arrived at the car, all was well and the dogs piled back inside. We continued our drive south towards Tupper Lake: