Summer On The Farm

There are ten little bantam hens now, seven Barred Rocks and three Easter Eggers. They aren't laying many eggs, but there are still more than I can use:

A pair of fantail pigeons successfully hatched two babies in their cubbyhole nest:

The babies were doing well for several days:

And then one morning, I found one dead and the other missing. I'm afraid this is a common occurrence and I've become accustomed to dealing with it:

I'm glad to say, however, that there are some successful nests in which parents raise healthy babies to help make up for the sad losses. These two are so close to adulthood that I feel confident they'll make it now:

They are growing rapidly and don't mind being held:

Flowers have been blooming in abundance and I collected two colors of roses and three colors of lilies into one vase to bring to church on Sunday:

I also collected an armload of Elderberry blossoms and put them in a vase, then stuck a couple of Ninebark branches in for color variety. Alas, by the time I arrived at church, the Elderberry stems had wilted so badly that I had to dump them in the weeds by the church parking lot. I know now that Elderberries, like Oriental Poppies, should not be used as cut flowers:

A new color of Asiatic Lilies, planted just this year, have been blooming copiously:

You may remember the photo of baby apricots in a previous post. There is now only one marble-sized apricot left and I don't expect it to last. But at least I now know that the tree can produce fruit:

The always productive plum tree is producing nice looking plums, but the other plum tree has lost its fruit:

I planted a whole row of seeds in an area where other seeds didn't take. I now have lots of baby Lupines emerging. They're awfully close together, but I think I'll leave them alone and let nature take its course:

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:

Plants And Animals

It's been a wet summer, difficult for many people but good for growing my perennials. Notice Fergus watching me from his fenced yard:

 A normal dawn sky in the northeast, something I see nearly every morning:

 The fantail pigeons are earning their keep just by being pretty and fun to watch:

 Just about the time the Rugosa Roses slowed their blooming, the wildflowers growing at their base began flowering. These are called Bouncing Bet, and they bloom here every year:

 It's been so wet that mushrooms sprang up on the lawn:

 The bantam hens stayed indoors, clucking and eating and laying eggs:

 They seem contented with their lives, though I know they'd rather go outside:

 The apple trees all got sick from something and dropped all their fruit, though I found one tree with a few apples on it. The pear tree, after a questionable spring, surprised me by producing nicely. These baby pears are growing rapidly:

 I thought I'd moved all the old Asiatic Lilies to the new garden, but one plant is rooted below the shed over the generator. It sent out a flower stalk and is blooming happily. I hope to find its root in the autumn and transplant it:

 And in smaller, less conspicuous flowers, there is Wood-Sorrel blooming everywhere:

 I heard peeping one day in the pigeon room and looked for a baby. There was one, about a week old, on the floor and doing quite well. How I never noticed it before is a mystery to me - or perhaps a testament to my lack of attention:

 I wish I'd taken a photo of this spot before I cleared it, but at least I got a picture of the results. It was covered with brush and filled with large rocks. I removed all the brush and most of the rocks, then filled it back in with compost. I have ordered a Wisteria vine, a variety good to -40 F and reported to bloom repeatedly in the summer, to be planted this autumn. I will encourage it to grow up this power pole:

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:

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: