Monday, May 2, 2011

Birds On The Brain...Again

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We have been seeing a plethora of birds this past week on our little homestead. Just yesterday morning the children and I spotted a male painted bunting, a male indigo bunting, and a male blue grossbeak within inches of each other in one of the hackberry trees in the backyard!

I am yet to see an oriole, but have an oriole feeder out in case one happens by. So far the hummingbirds are enjoying it's offerrings.

And speaking of painted buntings, one crashed into our dining room window Saturday morning while the husband and kids were shopping for another calf at the local salebarn. The painted bunting was quite shook up and I knew if I didn't rescue him from the deck he would be a cat snack. So I carefully put him into a box to monitor him. After an hour or so, I noticed he wasn't moving much and had been bleeding a little from his beak.
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He died just before the children and my husband got home.
It was quite interesting to get such a close look at such a beautiful bird and the kids thought so too. Yet we were saddened that he died.

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Speaking of birds, I just have to mention my oversized, ridiculously ferocious yardbird, Mr. Incredible.
Mr. Incredible is our resident rooster and soon to be included in a chicken casserole of some type because of his cantankerous ways.
But currently we're keeping him around so that we can have fertilized eggs.
For the past several days I've been adding eggs to the incubator. We're hoping to hatch out a whole new crew of egg layers. I'm going to go ahead and get my egg license and sell eggs to a local health foods store.

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A bird we enjoy but have yet to see is the Whip-poor-Will.
We hear these at dusk and at dawn.
I'm pleased that with the bird units we've done over the past years that the children can now identify many different types of birds and appreciate their beauty.
They are such a testament to our Lord's wonderful variety of beauty that He has so generously bestowed on His creation!

Seeing Him in the simple things, Julie

Regarding my photos: I would like to add that I'm so thankful my husband got me the macro lens that I'm using here last Christmas...it's really made a difference in my picture taking!

5 comments:

Jennifer Hoots said...

My kids call me a bird brain and they are right. I'll drop our studies in an instant if an interesting bird stops at the feeder. Does that make me Bird ADD?

Brownie said...

I'd like to have a bird feeder too - but we have so many outside cats!

I wanted to say thanks for being so persistent in leaving a comment on my blog :) I appreciate your encouragement. I have to say I'm actually relieved over the change in schooling. ANd then... feeling a bit guilty that I'm relieved LOL!

I've been a bit out of the habit of blogging - been working a lot of hours and it uses up vital creative juices.

You know... I just love looking at your photos! You're so good!

Brownie said...

Oh! I wanted to say too: My aunt had a huge picture window that birds would often fly into and then fall to the ground. She would pick them up and from the outside faucet would run cold water over them; she said that they would just fly away then.

Jane Deskis said...

Julie, when I try to post at some sites, google tries to tell me I don't belong to eatfartandbark. Go figure.
Wanted to wish you a Happy Mother's Day. The pictures are beautiful. I'm glad to hear you are enjoying the chickens. I know what you mean about cantankerous roosters, but they sure do a great job protecting the ladies.

Sally said...

Hi Julie! Just a quick stop here. I'm at the library on borrowed time. There's never enough to do blogging properly. Love your birds! We are excited just to see robins, lol. We have one nesting under our little deck, and the girls love to watch it. Must run. Sigh. I miss you!