It’s almost the end of June and the first batch of “nestlings” have left the nest. They all left at about the same time; first the little wrens made it out of the nesting box and onto the pickets on the fence around the deck. Great rejoicing as they perched and chirped their song of freedom from what must have been a very crowded little nesting box!
I saw six of them leave, all in one morning, with Mom and Dad encouraging them to try their wings, tempting them with large moths and bugs. It must have been a gourmet meal for the little ones because they didn’t hesitate to fly into the trees with the parents.
Then on the other side of the house, the little sparrows “flew the coop,” which is the bird bottle under the eaves.
I’ve never heard so much cheeping! I could watch from the kitchen window as they made their way from the bottle to my old fashioned wooden clothes line. One by one, they lined up on the crossbar … they had to fly at least 10 feet! But, I’m sure it was a major accomplishment for the brand new, unused wings on the little guys.
With all the baby birds around that we feed, it was bound to happen that a young hummingbird would get stuck in the garage!
Photo: Fotolia/itsallgood
I normally don’t have the door open because of all the critters living out here, like chipmunks, squirrels, possums, wood chucks and such, but it was open long enough for her to get in and not find her way back out.
They are attracted to red; I have two red vehicles – a red Dodge Dart and a red Nissan Xterra. All she did was fly around and around the tops of the vehicles … totally confused and getting tired. I backed both vehicles out of the garage, thinking she would get the message to fly out the big door, but no such luck.
Checking every few minutes for over an hour, we took the screen out of the window and opened it from both the top and bottom, hoping she would fly out. Again, no such luck.’
Then I got the brainy idea of hanging the red hummingbird feeder with the red nectar in the open window.
It wasn’t five minutes before she sipped the nectar and zoomed out of the open window! Success!
In an effort to protect my strawberries, I covered them with black mesh to keep the chipmunks from eating the berries before I could pick them. Of course, one of the “chippies” got stuck in the mesh; it was wrapped around his little neck. Getting my heavy barn gloves, I held the little guy while John cut the mesh and set him free. He scampered off as fast as he could on his little legs without so much as a “thanks!”
Mother Nature has given us so much rain, more than 4 inches in less than two days at one point, that Delilah, my female miniature donkey, has thrush.
Delilah
The vet came out this week to check her hoof because she was limping and discovered the bacterial infection. Normally, she is very laid back while Samson is a pistol!
Samson
Not that day … she was awful with Dr. Phil. He had to chase her around the stall, finally had her cornered when she turned her rear end to him and kicked him right in the knee cap!
Meanwhile, Samson was trying to protect her and keep her calm, but it didn’t work so he threw himself down in the middle of his stall and rolled all around, kicking up the straw bedding on the stall floor. He made quite a spectacle of himself. When Dr. Phil was done with Delilah, he was ready to give them their yearly shots.
Delilah wasn’t happy, but she was tied to the stall bars and couldn’t do anything.
Samson is usually a big pain, throwing himself around the stall; but that day, he was as good as gold. He didn’t have to be tied to the bars and even let Dr. Phil pet his nose and rub his ears! Samson hates to have his ears touched. Go figure!
Ah, life on the homestead is never dull. Sometimes, I wish it would get dull for a little while but I wouldn’t trade this life for anything!
