Bird Sightings – Page 70 – The Hermits' Rest

Chicken Resurrection

Happy Autumnal Equinox! Welcome Mabon, the middle of the harvest season! Happy thoughts to Texas finally cooling off at some point in the future.

Today’s little tale has a sort of harvest theme, because it happened when I went to harvest eggs last night (make that egg, as there was just one).

I got a bunch of chicken food and spread it out, to much clucking and cooing. Then I went into the hen house to check for eggs and to see how Blackie, the one who got all broody and wouldn’t get off the nest, was doing.

I miss having white eggs! And the hen that laid that tiny brown one now lays BIG ones.

Each day for the past few weeks, I’ve been having to reach under her and take out whatever eggs she had gathered to sit on. I would inevitably get pecked a couple of times for my impertinence.

Well, she wasn’t there. I’m so used to dead chickens, that I immediately got all sad that some dog or animal got her while she was defending her nonexistent chicks. Then I steeled my heart and said to myself that we tough ranch mamas are totally used to losses. It’s just part of life.

I turned to take my egg to the car, and low and behold, who came walking up, a bit thin, but perky? Blackie! She’s a tough old bird after all. I guess she got tired of all that sitting, or her hormones wore off, or something.

I’m not as buff as buffy, but I’m eating again!

She was broody over a month, but she made it through. We will have to see if she starts laying again. Right now only 3 of the 7 are producing eggs.

Big Red, Little Red, and Rocky are glad to have their friend back.

I declare that Blackie rejoining chicken society is the start of things getting better around here. A new season, and new stuff to enjoy/deal with is on its way!

New Mamas and Wannabes

I just had to share this! As I was driving into the Wild Hermits part of the ranch, I saw our tenant messing with a cow. Hmm, I thought, some of those cows looked pretty bagged up yesterday (yeah I talk rancher talk to myself).

Sure enough, when he left, I saw this shiny new calf he’d just tagged. Hooray! It’s New Mama time here! These won’t freeze to death for sure.

It turns out there were two new brown calves, but the mama blocked my view when I drove by. Lucky, I found that baby in a photo of the other pair.

There’s another baby hiding at right. Moo!

I found the cool magnifying glass thing in my photo tools. Handy.

Wannabe

I guess the cow hormones must have drifted over to the chicken coop, because Blackie has gone broody. That means she wants to hatch eggs. Last week Kathleen and I managed to remove one.

Yesterday and the day before, she was not happy to have me poking at her, but today I just used both hands and managed to remove four more green eggs from her. I only got poked badly twice.

I read that they stay broody 3 weeks, so I hope my hand makes it through two more. I also hope she eats and drinks enough. They only leave the nest once a day. Poor Blackie. She’s all hormonal.

That’s Blackie in the middle of this picture from back when I had more chickens.

(The remaining 6 chickens are still fine! They love the cube!)

Chicken Cube

Today I had two potential things to write about. I’m chickening out (oh how humorous) and writing about the hens rather than ranting about self-righteous millennials.

We’ve been stable with chicken numbers for a couple of months now. Mandi thinks it’s because her dogs have managed to catch a couple of owls. I’m of two minds. I love owls, and they’re protected. But you can’t stop dogs from protecting “their” kittens.

Since it’s been so hot and the seven ladies I still have are trying their best to keep laying, I felt like they deserved a treat, so while I was at Tractor Supply, I got them a huge 25-pound cube full of grain and scratch that they can peck at and have fun. I think they liked it.

I also thought I should show you how well that little scamp Buffy is doing. Her tail feathers are growing back after Jess the blue heeler puppy tried to carry her home in her mouth. But they are coming in much darker than they were before!

The black chicken is acting broody or something. She won’t get out of the nest box. I hope she’s okay!

And…that’s my cheerful, pleasant chicken report.

Bobbing Along

This isn’t a part of the country I expect to see robins (American ones, which I just read are closely related to European blackbirds). But I got to enjoy listening to and observing a mother and fledgling today on a break at work.

I watched the mother, who was as big as her child, poke in the ground cover and find at least three worms, which she unceremoniously stuck down the fledgling’s gullet. It would then begin begging anew.

Those weren’t the only sounds I heard, though. There were Carolina wrens bopping all over the trees and bushes, too. I love to listen to them. Sorry for the poor photo quality. It was dark and the birds weren’t exactly posing for me.

There was also a much smaller, more gray bird with a beautiful song. It appeared to be wren-like, but it could also have been one of those tiny vireos. It would not hold still but was singing mightily.

I just thought y’all might enjoy some nature on this here nature blog!

Guess Who’s Not Dead? Hint: Cluck Cluck

It rained a bit today. What a surprise! But that’s nothing.

I went out to feed animals around 6:30. Horses and Fiona were covered with burs, but otherwise fine. To get more exercise, I walked over to the chickens, more wary than usual, since there was yet another hefty rat snake, or in this case, chicken snake, in the henhouse yesterday.

Sure enough, no eggs (but snake is gone). I glanced over at the place next to the cabin, since I’d found four eggs there last week. Yes! An egg!

Hmm. That egg is definitely darker than Rosey’s and Mrs Stripey’s eggs, but lighter than Wild Thing’s speckled ones.

I decided to walk around and see if I could find any other hidden caches. I went in the barn and checked out random baskets an such. Then something caught my eye on a shelf.

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Summer Dead Stuff

Hey again. I’ve got some more deep thinking coming up, but first I have to say it’s hard to get anything at all done this time of year, because there’s always something interesting and deceased laying around.

Our first thing isn’t dead, just empty. That’s the tiny nest the baby finch tried to fall out of yesterday. It’s so small and exposed! But birds successfully fledged.

Awkward photo of awkward bird nest

The next best is bigger and more protected.

But at least two fledglings ended up on the porch this morning!

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Did I Save a Baby Bird? And Summer Glory

Isn’t it about time I got back to nature observations? I think we all could use some sweet stories and pretty photos, so I’ll try to give you some of each.

I love this image of a wheel bug on the window at work.

The Dangling Finchlet

First, I’ll tell you about the house finch families who have taken up residence at the Hermit Haus, who entertain me and Mandi when we hang out by the carport. They sing and sing, and fly right next to us or sit in big groups chirping and looking spiffy (especially the males).

Well, as we came out to leave this afternoon and I was trying to load paper towels in the car, something brushed against me. I looked left, and there was a poor little baby finch flailing away, but unable to fly off, because a piece of nesting material was stuck on its leg.

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Driving Down the County Road 140 Obstacle Course

To get to the Hermits’ Rest, you have to go 2.2 miles down a county road for the last leg. As a county road in a poor county, you don’t expect immaculate maintenance. But, you might expect to be able to go in a straight line.

Not on our road! You know it’s a local driver when you see a lot of weaving and slowing down. There are spots where those in the know look like they are doing a slalom. There are areas on the hill where people driving what they think is a reasonable speed can go airborne.

We call that the roller coaster. When you first turn onto County Road 140 there’s what we call the washboard. It’s caused hubcaps to fall off. And there are at least two danger pits where I have no doubt people unfamiliar with the road have experienced damage to wheels or suspension systems.

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The Year of the Snake?

You’ve heard all about our snake and chicken issues. Today I was happy to see the hens in the chicken yard, so I could give them some new food. But as I walked toward the yard with the food, I saw a funny-looking garden hose. That was yet another snake. It was heading under Tyler’s bedroom, where I’m thinking the eggs now are. Sigh.

I’m pretty sure this is a garden hose, says Rosie.

The chickens didn’t care. They just wandered by it and went out to eat bugs. Sigh again.

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8 Chickens + 0 Eggs = ?

Finally, a non-introspective post. Read it anyway!

Yesterday when I checked the chickens, there was just one egg, from Rosie, and it was in a weird spot, not in the nest boxes. I thought to myself that just didn’t seem right.

Today there were no eggs in the henhouse. Because I was suspicious, I entered carefully. I saw this very satisfied coil of sated slitherer:

Totally explains chickens way out in the pasture and lack of eggs! I left.

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