Chickens gone wild

Well, we FINALLY got the outdoor chicken enclosure completed the other weekend. Seemed like everything took a lot longer than expected and we would always get interupted with other things going on! The chickens are getting much larger now and they were eager to get outside. They had no hesitation at all jumping right out the door and getting to work on eating all of the stuff they couldn't get to before.

Check out these photos and you can click on the video clip at the end as well to see some "Chickens Gone Wild" footage. You can see it took every ounce of self-control, along with constant verbal warnings from Mayme and I, to prevent Jake from getting a taste of free-range chicken! He seems to be doing better now though, but still very excitable. Lily, our cat, doesn't seems pretty indifferent to the whole thing. She's one smart cat and seems to know these gals are part of the family.

A new friend in the neighborhood

This year and last I would walk up to the ridge and hear the strangest bird call. Every time, I could only barely catch a glimpse of the culprit. Finally, this year I was able to get a closer look, but still could not identify the bird. After doing some online research, I finally figured out that it is a Bobolink. I've never even heard of that bird! Apparently it does come through Wisconsin during the early summer for breeding and has one of the longest migrations known. It's yearly roundtrip of about 12,000 miles takes it to South America for the winter months.

Here are some links for more information if you're interested:

http://nationalzoo.si.edu/ConservationAndScience/MigratoryBirds/Featured_Birds/default.cfm?bird=Bobolink

http://macaulaylibrary.org/search.do (#10 on the list of audio recordings sounds the most like ours)

Meet the Girls

We'd like to introduce you to "the girls"; in the back row left to right, we have Faye, Matilda and Thelma. In the front row left to right is Nellie, Gertrude and Ella. Or is it Ella then Gertrude?



After tenderly loving our baby chicks for the first 10 weeks of their lives, Dave and Ginny packed up all six chicks into a cat carrier and personally drove them all the way to us from Nebraska. After their long trip, Dave and Jason got them set up in the coop with fresh litter, food and water. Then they made a small roost for them since they can't fly yet. They look larger than they are in this picture. Each is only a little over a pound.

I installed a small door off the back of the coop and put a screen in it so they could look out. In the coming weeks we'll build a screened in porch and a fence back there. Not only to protect them from coyotes and hawks but from Jake and Lily as well. Jake can't take his eyes off of them and Lily is pretending like she doesn't know they're in there. I'm sure that's her strategy so she can pounce when we least expect it. I held one of the chicks and bent down so Jake could smell it. I told him "gentle" and at that, he opened his mouth very softly and started to slowly close it around the chicken's tail.

So far all the chicks are safe and happy in their new home. We'll keep you updated.

Some old friends return

This morning marked the return of our old friend the Eastern Phoebe. This is one of my favorite birds and it's great to see them return. They eat insects all day long. Patiently waiting in a tree and then flying out just to grab a single insect and returning to the same branch to wait for the next flyby. Earlier this week the Bluebirds also returned and are carefully evaluating our nest boxes to pick the perfect one for them. Another great insect eating, these birds always hang out around our garden.