Birdland

Ketchup and Mayo, hangin’.  They’re so mild.  I think it was from being raised by a Silkie hen.  They won’t leave Silkieland, even though they can.  They come and go from inside to out, visiting the roosters on the outside, but always back in at night.

There was  a hummingbird trapped in the greenhouse, zooming back and forth, stopping to refill at tomato flowers.  I thought it best to not interfere and hope he got out.  The dragonflies and bees don’t have any trouble this year, now that I have “screen doors” of orange snow fence.

Every day a vireo comes and goes through the door; I don’t even know what he’s shopping for.  And the chicken feed supports not only chipmunks and bunnies, but also a red winged blackbird or two and a pair of mourning doves.

I saw another sparrow smash into my protectively screened windows, too.  That’s two that I’ve seen, so who knows how many near misses there’ve been.  He was bounced back and sat on the clothesline to regroup, looking back at the windows like WTH?  There’s some kind of force field!

The tweens on an adventure.  They’re getting used to coming to the house, although something spooks them at times and they sprint away to familiar territory squawking.   I can’t figure out what’s getting them like that – a rabbit or a bee? 

One of the tweens was in the woods today practicing crowing.  He needs to keep practicing.   And his attempt at privacy was a failure.  The other roosters all fell silent, listening.  Him: Glragh ga grleagggh!  Other roosters:  Wow.  He’s got a ways to go.  He really does.  Crowing is not something you’re born able to do, if you’re a chicken, though perhaps the vocalizing urge is.

I lucked out with three colours of snapdragons germinating.  I know, they’re not window box plants (although I don’t know how big they could/should get) but they were just tiny threads when I transplanted them and I didn’t have ambitious hopes for them.

I almost had a repeat performance of the great keet hunt last night.  The sun’s going down earlier, it’s catching me out.  I found Galahad tucked away (this time in blackberry brambles – smart) while there was still light, but it took some work to chase out the keets.  Heeey, we were all tucked in. Once flushed, he took them all to the greenhouse, so crisis averted!