In Our Own Backyard

Prairie Burns and Tree Swallows

2010-04-05T17:11:00.000-07:00

This time of year, the areas around where we live that are being restored to prairie, using native species of plants, trees and shrubs, are often burned by trained professionals to promote the native species and suppress invasives. Depending on how well-established a prairie restoration is, these burns can be every year or only every several years. It's quite an experience to see a large prairie burn, and it's also exciting to see the prairie plants rapidly reappearing after a burn. Many homeowners where we live also have small prairies in their yards, and are allowed to burn these provided they are trained at "burn school" and have certain qualified homeowners present to make sure the burn is conducted safely.

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The bluebird box I monitor has no bluebirds (yet), although I did have a nesting pair last year. I did have Tree Swallows investigating the box this morning, and I was dive-bombed by one as I was checking the box for sparrow intruders - there were none, so perhaps the swallows will take up residence even if bluebirds don't.

Waiting For Bluebirds

2010-03-24T10:45:00.000-07:00

Since there have been recent Eastern Bluebird sightings, I decided to close up the bird box I monitor, in hopes the sparrows had nested elsewhere. But within an hour, what do I see but sparrows trying to enter the box! So I opened the box again so they couldn't start to nest - I'll have to wait until I see bluebirds (or perhaps Tree Swallows) looking to nest before I close it again.

Migrating Waterfowl

2010-03-23T15:51:00.000-07:00

We often see many different sorts of migrating waterfowl on our ponds in both spring and fall. Today I saw a solitary male Bufflehead - they are striking, although small birds.

"Comb" Frogs and First Bluebird

2010-03-23T09:44:00.000-07:00

The Western Chorus Frogs (the site in the link is a great one that covers that frogs and toads of the Chicago region) are calling loudly from every wetland - their call sounds like a finger running over a comb. And this morning, I saw my first Eastern Bluebird - it was sitting on top of one of the bluebird boxes that are scattered around. I had a pair of bluebirds nest last year in the box I tend in front of my house - I've been keeping the box open to fend off the House, or English, Sparrows that always try to nest in it, hoping they'll be moved to nest elsewhere, as they're an invasive species plague around here and actually destroy bluebird eggs and young. As soon as I see bluebirds in the vicinity, I'll close the box up and hope the bluebirds nest.

Close Encounter

2010-03-22T12:51:00.000-07:00

I had an amazingly close encounter with a Red-tailed Hawk a few days ago when I was driving on the expressway. These hawks often hunt along the interstate - the short grass on the margins and the medians allows them to see their prey, and they often sit on the light poles to survey things, or soar overhead. As I was driving along, a hawk caught something and flew up in front of me just as I drove past. It was weighed down by what it had caught, and barely cleared my hood and windshield - I was very close to hitting it but didn't have a chance to react. I got a very close view of the bird and could see it had prey hanging down from its talons, but couldn't see what the prey was. I'm glad I got to see it, but it was a little too close for comfort!

March Sunset

2010-03-12T16:10:00.001-08:00

The sunset last night was beautiful - a spring sky, a disturbed sky, as some weather moved through - we had our first rumble of thunder last night. Much more to come - we get many thunderstorms in the spring and summer, and I enjoy the skies they make.

Trees Full of Life

2010-03-08T06:31:00.001-08:00

A few days ago when I was walking it was very foggy - even nearby trees were invisible. I heard an immense clattering, almost a machinery-like sound - very loud and very complex - from where I knew there was a line of trees, although I couldn't see them. After a moment, I realized I was hearing an enormous flock of birds that were migrating through - I'm not sure what kind as I never saw them - I'm suspecting a mixed flock of blackbirds, grackles and starlings. There must have been hundreds of birds to make such a clamor.

Hawk on Hawk

2010-03-07T13:08:00.000-08:00

I saw something today I've never seen before - a medium-sized hawk - I think it may have been a Cooper's Hawk, was perched in a tree, and a smaller hawk - perhaps an American Kestrel - was swooping up, then down to harass it, then up, then down, crying out as it flew. When the larger hawk flew off, the smaller one chased it for a ways, then broke off. I've seen smaller birds harass a hawk, and birds harass crows, but this was the first time I've seen a small hawk harass a larger one.

More Birds

2010-03-06T14:55:00.000-08:00

We also saw the first Red-winged Blackbirds in our back yard this afternoon - I understand the males usually come back to establish territories before the females arrive.

And then this afternoon, I think I saw a warbler, or perhaps a flycatcher, although it's early for flycatchers, as there are no insects yet - the breast was a yellowish-orange - and I didn't see it closely enough to take a stab at identifying it.

First Sandhill Cranes

2010-03-06T11:18:00.000-08:00

While I was just out for a walk, I heard, far in the distance, the first migrating Sandhill Cranes - one of my favorite sounds and a sure sign of spring!

Cooper's Hawk Visitation

2010-03-05T08:13:00.000-08:00

As I was walking today, a Cooper's Hawk flew low and fast in front of me - they are fierce predators, mostly of other birds. The bird landed in a nearby tree:

I waited for the moment it left the tree, and tracked it as it flew - please excuse the blurriness of these photos - the bird was moving fast and so was the camera:

I love seeing the complex wing movements required for flight.

Great Horned Owls

2010-02-24T12:11:00.000-08:00

We have a number of owl species in our part of the world, but the most spectacular is certainly the Great Horned Owl (Bubo virginianis). This bird has a body length of 22", a wingspread of 44" - almost 4 feet - and weights about 3.1 pounds. There are a number of different geographical plumages - our birds are typical Eastern, with rich reddish plumage on the face and body. For comparison, this owl has a longer body and slightly shorter wingspan than, and outweighs, a Red-tailed Hawk. The "horns" or "ears" (they aren't ears, just tufts of feathers) are very distinctive. It's a very big bird, and if you've ever seen one, you know what I mean. Perching, the bird is majestic, and when it's flying, it's truly magnificent, especially as its flight is utterly silent, almost ghostlike. Even the juveniles are large - I had the great good fortune on a bird walk a couple of years ago to closely observe two unfledged juveniles clinging to the trunk of a large tree.

Owls also have, due to their relatively flat faces and front-facing eyes, a very intense stare, and their habit of following your motion with their heads is a bit alarming. They are very successful predators, largely hunting at night and taking a number of prey species, including crows (picked off as they roost), porcupines, rabbits, rodents, skunks, other owls, hawks, pheasants, quail and other birds up to and including Great Blue Herons. They are supposedly the most common predator of domestic house cats (another reason to keep your cats inside). If you're very lucky, you may come upon a set of animal tracks in the snow that ends in wide wing prints where an owl captured its prey.

They have one brood per year, and are nesting now. Sometimes eggs or young are lost to the cold. They nest in tall trees, and have large messy nests. The two or three young hatch after 26-35 days of incubation, and are semialtricial 2 (which means that they hatch covered with down, with their eyes closed, cannot leave the nest and are fed by the parents), and fledge (fly) after another 35 days, although the parents (both parents incubate eggs and tend the young) continue to feed them for several more months. They cache some of their prey, and can defrost frozen prey by "incubating" it.

All owls fly silently because the forward edge of the first primary feather on each wing is serrated rather than smooth, which disrupts the flow of air and reduces the noise made by air passing over a smooth surface. Their hearing is acute, and much hunting success is due to hearing. They have specialized hearing and brain adaptations that allow them to precisely locate a sound in space.

Here is some more information, as well as some nice photos.

References: The Sibley Guide to Birds, David Allen Sibley; The Birder's Handbook, Paul R. Ehrlich, David S. Dobkin and Darryl Wheye; and Great Lakes Nature: An Outdoor Year, Mary Blocksma.

Birds, Tires and Gravel

2010-02-08T15:28:00.000-08:00

I've noticed an interesting thing - maybe you have too. The parking lot at the barn where my horses live is gravel, so my car and truck come home with bits of gravel wedged in their tires. And the small birds, particularly the sparrows, will get under the cars while they are parked in my driveway, or sit on top of the tires, and pick gravel pieces out of the treads. I presume they are doing this to ingest gravel for their crops.

A Visit to Richard Bong State Recreation Area

2010-02-01T17:30:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, we drove through Richard Bong State Recreation Area in southern Wisconsin. This is a very large natural area - some 4,500 acres, which has some water areas and some restored prairie areas and is apparently a great place to observe birds and wildlife. It was apparently originally designated to be an airbase, but was turned into a natural area instead. The terrain is very flat and open - beautiful vistas, backed by a low set of what seem to be glacial morraines - I'm not very familiar with the geology of Wisconsin and need to learn more. It's definitely somewhere I'd like to go back and visit when the weather is nicer!

Dreaming of Summer

2010-01-29T13:14:00.001-08:00

We're in the depths of winter, and I was looking through some photos and found this dream of flowers, with a bee:

Morning With Ice Fans

2010-01-17T09:35:00.001-08:00

This morning we had ice fog, and resulting ice fans. The landscape was extraordinarily beautiful - the fans were everywhere, lending every tree, bush and plant an almost numinous aspect. Everything was softly glowing, and color and texture contrasts were everywhere. Conditions had been just right overnight - high humidity, and hardly any wind, with temperatures below freezing. Here is a gallery of photos I took.

For more photos of these wonderful ice fans, please visit here and here.

Ice Fog

2010-01-16T07:43:00.000-08:00

We're having what's called ice fog today - high humidities and below freezing temperatures, with some fog, and ice being deposited on cold surfaces. I love how everything becomes hazy and indistinct:

Snowy Friday

2010-01-08T09:47:00.000-08:00

Yesterday into last night, we got about 12" of fresh snow - very light stuff with a low water content. We've already had our high for the day of about 19F, and the temperature's supposed to drop into the low teens this afternoon, with a strong, gusty wind. Wind chills will be below zero F by sunset.

I'm very fond of the subtle colors and tones, the strong contrasts and changing skies, of winter, and took a few photos of the newly snowy landscape.

New Career?

2010-01-05T09:33:00.000-08:00

I've been thinking for a number of years about possibly pursuing a new career. I've had at least two already - my first career was as a big-firm corporate lawyer, ultimately focussed on the technology and financing world, followed by a second career in finance - institutional asset management with a speciality in private equity. I've been retired for almost a decade, and my youngest child just went to college, so the next career may await.

The area I'm interested in exploring is in the conservation/ecology field. The aspects that interest me are land preservation, conservation management, sustainable agriculture and the preservation of agricultural open space - a big issue in my part of the world - and urban ecology/sustainable development. There's a lot going on right now in all of those areas.

I may at some point want to pursue an advanced degree in one of these areas, but for now I have the idea of trying a series of volunteer stints/internships at several different organizations in the areas of my interest to see what they're like and how I might fit into such an organization. It should be interesting to see how this develops!

A Few Good Guides

2009-12-30T15:19:00.000-08:00

I really enjoy nature in winter - the light, the skies, the branches of the trees, and the animal tracks in fresh snow. I love trees in all their seasons, and I just had the good fortune to receive a copy of David Allen Sibley's Guide to Trees. It has very much the identification format of his justifiably valued guides to birds, and it's done with drawings, which I generally find of much greater use than photographs. I believe it covers all the native species, and many introduced ones as well.

And then there's a favorite, old-fashioned guide/meditation on nature - A Guide to Nature in Winter by Donald W. Stokes and Deborah Price, which I believe to be out of print but which is available online secondhand. It's a wonderful thing - separate chapters, with excellent line drawings, concerning weeds, snow, trees, insects, birds and nests, mushrooms, tracks and evergreens.

And finally, a classic - Snow Crystals, by W.A. Bentley and W.J. Humphreys, containing almost 2,500 photographs of snow flakes, and originally published in 1931 and republished in its original form by Dover in 1962. This book would also make an excellent pattern book for artists and crafters.

Cooper's Visitation

2009-12-28T11:51:00.000-08:00

We had a visit by a Cooper's Hawk this afternoon - he or she was looking to capture a bird at our backyard feeder, but went away hungry. I didn't have the correct lens on the camera, but managed to get a few not-so-great shots:

Then he or she landed in a tree next to my house, and although the bird is partially obstructed by branches, I like the eye staring back at me - it almost looks as though the hawk is evaluating the prospects of eating me for dinner!

And there was one out-of-focus shot that I enhanced for an almost abstract effect.

Winter, Softly Snowing

2009-12-27T09:18:00.001-08:00

It snowed all day yesterday, and it's still snowing lightly - a wonderful, light, fluffy snow, with perfect winter days in the 20s.

Ice

2009-12-24T06:56:00.001-08:00

We've had freezing rain overnight, and this morning was a wonderland of ice.

Please have a most merry Christmas!

Book Review: Win-Win Ecology

2009-12-05T11:10:00.000-08:00

A book club I attend focuses on books relating to the natural world, food policy and other matters relating to conservation and land use. At our meeting last month we discussed Win-Win Ecology: How the Earth's Species Can Survive in the Midst of Human Enterprise, by Michael L. Rosenzweig.

The book's thesis is that conventional conservation thinking - reservation (nature preserves) and restoration ecology - cannot by themselves save even a fraction of the earth's species. He proposes a concept he calls reconciliation ecology, where people would take action to foster the survival of specific species in the midst of human enterprise. In the first part of the book he gives a number of examples of this type of success, some of which were accidental.

In the second part of the book, he gives a detailed explanation of why he believes current conservation techniques are inadequate. Through a detailed analysis of population dynamics - the movement into and out of reserves by species and the speciation/extinction balance, he makes a convincing case that if only 5% of the earth's surface is effectively conserved as native habitats, then only about 5% of the species from those habitats will survive - and that assumes that alien species don't overrun the reserves. So the reserves we have now will, over time, become increasingly depleted of species.

The book is not easy to read - the style is not fabulous and the sections of the book don't hold together well. Nor does he, in the final sections of the book, give clear proposals for how reconciliation ecology will be implemented. He does make it clear that much of the activity will have to occur on a local basis, and in many of these cases the role of government will be limited. He does believe, however, that government does have a critical role - not so much of regulation as incentivizing - particularly across larger geographic areas. The author amends Rene Dubos's great slogan: "Think globally; act locally" to "Think globally; act locally - unless you need to act on a larger scale to accomplish anything." (p. 171)

If you're interested in the difficult choices we humans face as we continue to multiply and exploit the planet, and are interested in conservation, you may be interested in this book.

Sandhill Cranes and a Muskrat

2009-11-27T15:33:00.000-08:00

This morning I heard, but didn't see, some migrating Sandhill Cranes. We often see huge flocks passing by in the spring and fall - thousands of birds - and frequently they fly so high you can barely see them - they have a 6 to 8 foot wingspan so that's high up indeed - but you can always hear them - their clattering calls are very loud. We have had birds stop over while migrating to rest by our ponds, and there have been several breeding pairs in wildlife preserve areas nearby. I was lucky enough to see a pair on the nest when on a spring bird walk. My heart always lifts when I hear or see them - for some reason - perhaps its the unearthly nature of their call - they seem especially compelling to me.

I also was fortunate enough to see a Muskrat today as the sun was setting. The pond north of the horse barn seems to have a resident population - there are a number of lodges in and among the cattails. Even though the air temperatures were only in the 30s, he or she seemed at ease in the water, swimming along, diving and resurfacing. They are very sleek, alert creatures, and when they swim their bodies barely break the surface of the water, leaving a long V behind.

Dead Trees

2009-11-21T08:22:00.000-08:00

There are a number of dead trees, or trees with dead parts, on my way to and from the barn. They are mostly left alone, unless they are about to fall on something, since they provide homes and food for birds, animals and insects. I always think they are interesting, and this morning I took some photos:

November Sunrise

2009-11-17T08:15:00.000-08:00

I love how the light changes at sunrise on these early winter mornings:

Some Wonders

2009-09-11T09:36:00.000-07:00

I'm always amazed, every day, at the wonders of the natural world. Even when I'm weeding in the pastures! Yesterday, when I was leading Maisie in, I spotted a Horse Nettle plant, but couldn't remove it because I didn't have gloves or clippers with me. I just tried to remember where it was in the pasture so I could find it again. This morning after turning the horses out, I went back to find it - it took me a while of walking back and forth in the area where I remembered that it was - it was somewhat hard to see because it was a smallish plant, not in flower, and in among some taller grasses:

Where there's one, there are often more - I found three plants there and one more when I was walking back to the barn through another pasture. Horse Nettle (also called Bull Nettle) is a member of the Nightshade family (Solanum) and is poisonous to horses. The leaves and stems have small spines, and the flowers are white (sometimes violet) and the berries are yellow. The plants are more toxic in fall. Here's a set of plants in flower (not from our pastures) along a path behind my house - in our prairies and native areas we don't remove it because it is a native plant and is not invasive:

While I was out with the clippers anyway, I removed a bunch of Spotted Knapweed plants. These tend to grow along fence lines or in disturbed, compacted areas near the gates. This plant is very invasive in pastures, and is a plague in parts of the West, occupying thousands of acres. The plant secretes a chemical that makes it difficult for other plants to grow nearby. Luckily, we don't have too much of it in the pastures:

We've had the good fortune to have an Orb Weaver spider establish a web just by the front walk to the house - it spans an amazing distance and is high enough off the ground that we can walk under one of its guy threads without bending:

The spider is in the center, and I think it might be a male, since males are smaller than females - perhaps one of you spider experts out there can comment.

And for the final natural wonder, several days ago there was a very large hawk sitting on one of the pasture fences. As soon as I could get my husband to come over with a telephoto lens on his camera, it left, but he managed to get this shot from about 75 yards away:

Although we've had occasional sightings of Bald Eagles, from what we could see of it, it appeared to be a very large Red-tailed Hawk.

On a horse note, neglected Maisie finally got some attention yesterday - we managed a nice 40 minute trail ride - I worked on giving very small half-halts with my seat to control her speed and it worked beautifully.

Enjoy your fall - I think it's the best time of year to be outside!

The Prairie in Early Fall, and Some Vegetables

2009-09-09T04:00:00.000-07:00

It's getting to be fall, and the summer prairie plants are winding down. The fall ones are getting started - fall is my favorite time of year: the light is starting to have a lovely angle, and the days are warm and nights are cool. Fall is also a beautiful time on the prairie - there are fewer things flowering but the grasses are maturing. It's mostly a time of golds and purples.

In the mornings now when I go to the barn, there are soft colors to the east:

It's the time of the Goldenrods - there are many types, and they are hard to identify - let me know if you think I've got any of these wrong. The most common - it's so vigorous that it can become a serious pest - is the Canada Goldenrod:

Then there's Ohio Goldenrod - a flattish, spread-out flower head and narrow, lance-shaped leaves:

This is Stiff Goldenrod - a large, compact flowerhead on a single stem with large leaves:

I'm not sure which of the Goldenrods this is, but it was very small, less than 1', and had distinctive leaves:

I believe this is one of the Grass-leaved Goldenrods:

Prairie Docks often have flowers that reach 7-10' in height - these had fallen down near the trail and make an interesting picture - I also managed by chance to get both of my mares in the background!

The grasses are really getting beautiful this time of year. Here's a Big Bluestem seedhead against the sky:

This is an Indian Grass seedhead - they glow a lovely gold in the lower fall light:

This is one of the Bonesets, just coming into flower:

These New England Asters are a lovely blueish/purple:

And here is a Blue Aster - very delicate and lovely:

I like the stems and leaves of the Tall Coreopsis - they are very architectural:

The Maximillian Sunflowers are in flower now that they've attained their full height - these plants were easily 8' tall:

The Brown-Eyed Susans are lovely and profuse in their flowering:

And here are a couple of bad guys - the first is Phragmites grass, with its pretty plumes, which is a serious invasive of wetlands - it spreads like wildfire and soon becomes a monoculture if you let it:

If you're an allergy sufferer, here's one for you - Giant Ragweed. There's a cousin called Lesser Ragweed which is shorter with finely cut leaves. It blooms at the same time as Goldenrods and for years many people thought Goldenrods were causing allergies, when in fact it was the Ragweeds with their inconspicuous flower heads that were the real cause of the problems.

And to finish up, here are some vegetables that I liked for their patterns and textures - all squash family members except for the okra, which a member of the Hibiscus family: on the left is Lady Godiva squash, which has seeds with no hulls designed for roasting (the flesh isn't very good to eat), on the right is a watermelon, and then two Black Beauty zucchinis and the okra. The watermelon was part of our organic farm share this week, and I grew the rest in my community garden plot:

Workshop on Poisonous Plants

2009-08-22T19:44:00.000-07:00

I was up very early this morning - about 4:30 a.m. When I took the dog out, there were broken clouds, and through them I could see the most amazing stars - the atmosphere must have been especially clear - we're having much cooler weather - because the stars were very clear and I could see many more than usual. It was glorious. I got to the barn around 5:30 and fed and turned out the horses, made up feed and cleaned one of my stalls before I had to head off to the workshop I was attending together with Charisma's owner, who oversees our pasture management.

One of the reasons our pastures are so good is that they are actively managed. We do intensive rotational grazing, with our pastures subdivided into 10 smaller pastures that our two herds of geldings and mares rotate through on about a weekly basis. We also have two winter dry lots which we also use when the pasture grasses are stressed by drought, or need to build roots in the fall. We do regular annual over-seeding of barer areas in the pastures - gate areas tend to get bare - and also reseed our dry lots once the horses are out of them in the spring - this help extend the time when there isn't mud and also delays our need for round bales. Charisma's owner religiously measures the grass in the different pastures to make sure we aren't over-grazing. She also does a lot of hand-weeding of plants that reduce forage quality or that are poisonous to horses. She also does spot herbicide treatment from time to time of a few persistent perennial weeds like Canada Thistle and Multiflora Rose, paying very close attention to persistence and the time the horses should be out of the pastures. I help her with these jobs from time to time, and also just have an interest in plant identification. I've learned to identify a number of plants that can be hazardous to horses, but I'm always looking to learn more.

We were attending a 3-hour workshop put on by the University of Illinois Extension. There were probably about 20 people in attendance. For those of you not from the U.S., the public land-grant universities have extension services that provide much valuable assistance to farmers, ranchers and others with crops and animals - many of these services are also available to the general public. They do research and also publish many resources which we use on pasture management, hay and animal nutrition. The workshop was conducted by a vet, with assistance from the extension representative who we have worked with frequently on pasture issues.

We had a two-hour presentation on plants in our area that may be toxic to horses, which also included the clinical signs of eating (or in the case of Black Walnut, standing in contaminated shavings from) the toxic plant. Due to their different digestive systems, horse are sometimes affected different than other grazers such as cattle. Although there is a long list of plants, shrubs and trees that are poisonous to horses, fortunately horses will generally avoid toxic plants since they are much more selective grazers than cattle. The biggest problems occur where horses are not being fed sufficiently and are in pastures that are of poor quality, or are bored, say in a bare dry lot, and chew on what is there or reachable over the fence. Horses may also be affected by toxins that can develop in corn, hay or haylage, or due to plants or insects (such as Blister Beetles) that are included in hay.

There are also a number of ornamentals that are used around homes that are toxic (some extremely toxic) to horses, including Yew, Rhododendon/Azalea/Laurel, Foxglove, Oleander, Hydrangea, Delphinium/Larkspur and Lily of the Valley, as well as Red Maple. There are others and since horses are often stabled near homes, and there may be ornamental plantings around barns, this is good to know.

The level of toxicity of the various plants and agents varies, from ones where the horse would have to consume a large quantity to be affected to ones where even a small amount can cause severe effects or death. We had a show-and-tell with several complete - roots to flower - toxic plants to look at.

The presentation was held at the Chicago Botanic Garden, which is an amazing place to visit. After the formal presentation was done, we were given a map and directions how to find a number of the plants we had been discussing, and went out on our own to look at things.

We also got some lovely handouts and list of web sites that help with plant identification. (I did a post a while ago that included a list of my favorite identification guides.) There was also a good summary provided of the restrictions on grazing and haying following the use of various herbicides. I picked up a nice identification guide to pasture grasses. All in all, a very useful day!

* * * * * *

When I got home, Maisie and I took a short trail ride since our arena is still too wet to use. She was alert but much more relaxed. She mostly kept to a regular pace even as we returned to the barn, and we did some more of the "standing around" exercise. It was windy and cool, and also feeding time - she had to wait for dinner - so she did well.

The Prairie in Late Summer

2009-08-16T04:05:00.000-07:00

Our prairies are entering their late summer phase - the mid-summer plants are finishing up their flowering and the late summer/early fall ones are coming on. I enjoy watching the succession of blooms and growth.

Here's a tour - first the plants that are finishing up. Here are some Purple Coneflowers, in all their various phases of bloom:

The Vervain and Grey-headed (Yellow) Coneflowers are almost done flowering:

This Liatris is finishing up - it's a favorite with all sorts of butterflies:

The Wild Indigo makes fat, pea-like seed pods (this makes sense, as it's a member of the pea family):

The Compass Plants are beginning to fade, but the foliage is always interesting:

I also love to look at the foliage of the Cup Plants:

The flowers of the Rattlesnake Master are very unusual:

These Brown-Eyed Susans are in full flower:

As are the Nodding Wild Onions:

The Tall Coreopsis has reached its full height of almost 8 feet:

The earlier grasses are setting seed - the first is Canada Wild Rye and I'm not sure what the second is - it may be Little Bluestem:

The Big Bluestem grass is just starting to grow towards its full height of over 6 feet:

These Maximillian Sunflowers make huge mounds - and when flowering some plants reach 8 to 10 feet in height:

The Ironweed is a rich, deep purple:

The goldenrods are just getting started - we have a lot of the common Canada Goldenrod, which isn't in bloom yet, but this a lovely early one that I think is Ohio Goldenrod (there are at least 7, and I have trouble telling them apart):

Our Common Milkweeds are done flowering, but the Swamp Milkweed is in the middle of its bloom period, and attracts the same special visitors - Monarch butterflies:

Before we know it, it'll be fall, which is actually my favorite time of year.

Purples and Yellows of Summer

2009-07-31T07:38:00.000-07:00

High summer is here - even though it isn't really hot as it usually is this time of year. Many of the late summer prairie plants are beginning to flower - I always think of this time of year as the purple and yellow time.

Here's some Monarda (Bee Balm):

Some Yellow (or Grey-Headed) Coneflowers in the foreground with more Monarda behind:

Common Milkweed is in full flower - although I haven't seen many butterflies, maybe due to our very wet spring and early summer:

The Ox-Eye (or False) Sunflowers are at their height of bloom:

The Cup Plants are getting their full height - this one is easily 8 feet tall - and the first blooms are unfurling:

And here's an odd thing - nothing to do with prairies or horses - as my husband and I were sitting on the front porch one evening recently, we saw this:

Not really sure what it is - it makes me think of alien invasions - perhaps it's some sort of filamentary fungus?

And I couldn't resist this shot of several of the mares through the fence - that's Dawn on the left - on alert as a proper alpha mare should be - with Misty in the center and Sugar on the right. If you look carefully (I magnified as far as the picture would take it) you will see a number of Cowbirds doing their horse-riding act on Dawn's rump and withers and Misty's and Sugar's rumps - I guess if you can't find any cows to stir up insects to eat, horses will have to do!

The first cicadas are just now starting up - the cool weather has slowed them down a bit too, I expect.

Turn of the Year

2009-07-04T03:30:00.000-07:00

I always think of this time as the turn of the year - we're just past the summer solstice so the days are just starting to get shorter again - even though the hottest part of the summer is yet to come. It's also a turning point for the prairie wildflowers - the early summer flowers are fading and the late summer flowers are just getting ready to flourish.

Yesterday morning it was really nice - some sun and clouds and not too hot - so I took a walk with my camera, and took some pictures of the prairie flowers in transition. I'll try to identify the flowers I know.

The Coreopsis (I think this may be Lance-Leafed) is almost done flowering:

The Curly Dock - a non-native pasture weed which isn't very aggressive - seedheads are going through their color transformation from pale tan to dark brown - right now they're at a beautiful pinkish stage:

Canada Thistle, which is an aggressive invasive, is busy finishing flowering and going to seed - it tends to form dense patches and spread like wildfire if you let it go:

There are three non-native, members of the pea family that are all beautiful but which can spread aggressively. First, Blue Vetch, which is very viney in habit:

Crown Vetch, which tends to form large mounded clumps which spread:

And most beautiful - the bright yellow is stunning - but most aggressive of all, Bird's Foot Trefoil - low-growing and can tolerate conditions other plants can't, like roadsides that have poor soil and where salt may linger from winter:

There are two invasives that cause more problems than almost any other - one is Yellow Sweet Clover, and the other is White Sweet Clover, which matures later and is larger and even more aggressive. This plant, when dead and dry - as in hay - contains a dangerous blood thinner that I believe was one of the original sources of the blood thinners used in people. The White is just starting to flower, here is the Yellow, which is almost done flowering:

The Daisy Fleabane continues to flower - this non-native is fairly harmless in the prairie and tends to be displaced as a prairie matures:

The Ox-Eye, or False, Sunflowers are getting started:

The Purple Coneflowers, which are one of my favorite prairie plants, are just getting flowers, which will get larger and change shape:

Common Milkweed is a great favorite with all the bees, wasps and butterflies - especially the Monarch for which it is essential - it is just starting to flower:

Bull Thistles, which are a non-native which can be somewhat invasive, are just starting to flower - they are incredibly spiky and have very pretty flowers - they can be very large plants, head high or higher:

And now, my two very favorite late-summer prairie plants, which are just starting to get their full size - they both can grow to 10-12 feet, and have spectacular foliage and beautiful yellow flowers - first the Compass Plant - some are starting to flower:

And finally, my all-time favorite, the Cup Plant. These are still growing to reach their full height and are not yet in flower. Each pair of leaves is joined to the stem, and forms a cup that can collect rainwater - all sorts of interesting things can happen in those cups - if you look closely in the third photo you may see the small spider that is lurking in the highest cup waiting for insects to come to the water:

And here are two non-prairie plants from my own yard that I couldn't resist - a daylily:

And borage - I love the brilliant blue flowers and they attract many bees, wasps and small flies of all sizes and colors:

If you're interested in plant identification, I did a post a while ago that included lists of some of the guides I use, including for plants that are poisonous to horses - link here.

Have an excellent Fourth of July!

Dive-Bombed by Barn Swallows

2009-06-15T07:27:00.000-07:00

This happens every year. The Barn Swallows that nest in Lily's shed fledge and start flying, and the first place they fly to is the fence lines along the long aisle to the pastures. They sit there in a row, looking at the world, with their non-quite-filled-out bodies and short tails. They can fly, but not that well. Since they are new to the world, they are not in the slightest bit concerned by people or horses, and I can walk right by them without their flying off.

The parent birds, however, do think people are to be avoided, and so every time I walked by the fledglings on the fences this morning, I was dive-bombed by the parent birds, who flew at my head, loudly chirping. They didn't actually make contact (as they will if the barn cats come by), for which I was grateful!

Finally, this evening I got close enough to take a photo of one of the baby barn swallows, greeting the world:

This is one of those things that make me glad I'm here to see and participate in life!

An Unexpected Visitor

2009-06-06T17:49:00.000-07:00

We don't see deer very often - there are few wooded areas - but this morning, here is what we saw from our breakfast table:

She nibbled on the tree, and then ambled off down the path through the prairie! She was quite elegant and healthy-looking.

Magical Moments

2009-05-21T16:23:00.000-07:00

The Killdeers that have been nesting in the grass field behind our barn have successfully hatched all four eggs! I've been checking at least twice a day, as I had calculated that hatching would occur any time. Thursday morning, there was one hatchling, and three eggs. Thursday afternoon, all four eggs had hatched, and the first to hatch was already making progress out of the nest. I expect they'll be up and running around very soon - I hope to get some pictures of that, if I'm lucky. One of the 5 Eastern Bluebird eggs in the nest box near my house had also hatched yesterday morning - but I didn't get a picture for fear of disturbing the parent birds.

Here's the nest with the four Killdeer hatchlings - the first to hatch is towards the bottom and the three others are lined up in the nest, which is in shadow:

And here, courtesy of my husband and his better photographic skills (and better photographic equipment!) is the first hatchling - it makes me want to reach out and touch that soft down - but I resisted as it would have upset the parent birds, who were having a fit as we were so close:

That tiny ball of fluff is truly amazing to me - being present at the birth of something is a very special moment.

We also have an unidentified bird nesting - black and stripey - in a bush just outside our back window. It may be a Red-winged Blackbird, although we're several hundred yards from the nearest body of water. The nest looks right, but it's an odd location and there's no male Blackbird in evidence. We've been watching the female bringing back plant stems, which she carefully weaves into the nest, which is attached to a number of stems of the bush. We hope she's not deterred by our proximity, because it would be a lot of fun to watch the whole process. Maybe we'll figure out what she is by the time the eggs hatch!

It was very warm again yesterday - over 85F. I really didn't feel like riding, so I spent some time hanging out in the barn. I dragged one of our plastic chairs into the barn aisle and put it next to Maisie's stall. Noble, who's just across the aisle from Maisie, was standing with his head out of his stall over his stall guard. Maisie was standing with her head out of her stall - no stall guard, just standing in the open stall door with her feet just inside the threshold. As I sat there, Maisie and Noble just stood quietly, very relaxed. We just breathed together - very peaceful - as the last of the horses were led in from the pastures. Bob the barn cat (he's called Bob because he was born with no tail), who is very sweet, climbed into my lap - even on a hot day I'll let a cat sit in my lap. Maisie, who seems to love cats, brought her face down into my lap and gently "whuffed" him all over. Bob didn't move a muscle - he seemed to be able to tell her intentions weren't harmful. She enjoyed exploring his fur! One of our nicknames for her is Snuf-a-Whuf - she often gently whuffs - at people, new objects and all manner of things. I wish I'd had my camera - she was very sweet and kind, as she often is! It was one of those moments full of the magic and glory of life, where time seemed to stop and everything was full of peace and beauty.

Spring Sights

2009-05-19T10:46:00.000-07:00

It's a beautiful day today, so I went for a walk with my camera - mostly around the pastures since I'm unable to stay away from the barn and horses! The birds are busy with their nesting activities. Here's a Tree Swallow sitting on its nest box:

This male Tree Swallow is showing off his iridescence (with the added bonus of a glimpse of Blackjack between the fence boards):

I wasn't able to spot the Wood Ducks - gorgeous birds - I saw yesterday on the pond north of the barn. I also didn't manage to get a picture of the beautiful Yellow Warbler that was sweetly singing this morning in a bush just outside my bedroom window - it didn't see me so I got to see it in close-up.

The prairie plants are just getting started. These Golden Alexanders are one of the earliest prairie plants to bloom:

A neighbor has these lovely Shooting Stars growing in their front-yard prairie (yes, many of us here have prairies as part of our landscaping):

These Cream Wild Indigo plants are in my front yard, and are just starting to bloom:

And here's a plant we often encounter along the hedgerows and under trees - the dreaded invasive Garlic Mustard - it's actually quite pretty, but quickly becomes a monoculture crowding out all the native wildflowers:

And since no day is complete without horses, here are several of the mares - a curious Misty, and a distant Lily (grey) and Maisie (bay) - enjoying our wonderful weather:

Bird News

2009-05-15T07:34:00.000-07:00

When I woke up this morning at 5:00 a.m. it was raining pretty hard and about 50F degrees. There wasn't any rain in the forecast last night, and Lily was outside and unsheeted. I threw a coat on over my robe and slipped on my mud boots over my bare feet, and drove over to the barn - it's a couple of hundred yards from my house - and brought Lily inside. She was fairly wet but not shivering yet. Then I went home to eat breakfast.

It's a cool day (low to mid 50sF) with rain expected on and off, so I put rain sheets on all the horses this morning - I can blanket a horse in less than 2 minutes but with 13 it still takes some time. We haven't had to do this in a while - it's either been warm or it's rained at night. All the horses were feeling pretty good - Noble did the most running of anyone: he did his Quarter Horse sprint all the way to the back of the pasture - he's still amazingly fast!

In one of my earlier posts, I mentioned that we have Eastern Meadowlarks in the pastures. (Th bird links are to a wonderful site that has good information, including songs.) Yesterday for the first time, I heard and saw a Bobolink, and this morning he was there again, singing from his perch on one of the electric fences. I heard him before I saw him - they have the most wonderful bubbling, melodious, euphoric song - it's one of my favorite bird songs. I also think they are handsome with their distinctive plumage. I suspect that we have Meadowlarks, Bobolinks and a number of different species of grassland sparrows (which I can't tell apart or identify) nesting in the pastures, so I have recommended to the lady who manages our pasture maintenance that we defer mowing until the birds have a chance to hatch and fledge their babies. Both Meadowlarks and Bobolinks are in serious decline due to habitat loss, and I'm glad our pastures are suitable for them to nest.

I saw a pair of Common Grackles yesterday doing a mating display - they stood together on the fence and pointed their bills to the sky - it was very dancelike and elegant. The Barn Swallows are nesting inside the barn and Lily's shed - much swooping in and out of the doors. The barn swallows inside the barn are quite noisy when the parents bring food! Bob the barn cat is eagerly awaiting the time when some fall out of the nest :(. While I was leading the horses out this morning, the barn swallows were swooping along in front of and in back of us to catch the insects we stirred up. The Brown-headed Cowbirds are sitting on the horses to watch for insects, and then dropping down to eat - it's pretty clear how they got their name! I went to look at the Killdeer nest on the grass field behind the barn - the eggs should be hatching in a few more days - and both parents were trying to warn me off. I hope to get some pictures of the hatchlings when they arrive.

My husband saw a flock of Cedar Waxwings behind the house yesterday. We often see them in the fall migration in the cedar trees near the barn. In my backyard, the White-throated Sparrows seem to have moved on, leaving behind the White-crowned Sparrows. It certainly does feel like spring, with all this bird activity!

A Small Ride, Plant Identification and Bluebirds

2009-05-01T07:13:00.000-07:00

Maisie was still a little sore from her trim on Wednesday, so we only did a little bit of riding yesterday - but we had to ride because it finally stopped raining and the sun came out! We took a little trail ride, where we were able to walk on the grass to the side. So we minced and splashed and squished our way around. We were able to work a little bit on her softening at the walk. Then, since we couldn't really do anything else, we went out on the grass area behind the barn and did some work on our softening and backing, turn on the forehand, turn on the haunches and sidepass. She did quite well at that. Then we stood for a bit, and only then did she call a few times to the other horses, who were still in the pastures - but she stood still on a loose rein for as long as I asked her to.

Yesterday as I was turning horses out I noticed a large patch of flowering yellow in an adjacent pasture, so I walked over there to check it out. Although our pastures are well-established, we still have to do a lot of hand-weeding, mostly to remove aggressive plants, like Canada Thistle, Spotted Knapweed and Multiflora Rose, that would spread and degrade the quality of the pastures, or to eliminate plants that would be poisonous to the horses if eaten. Fortunately, horses will usually not eat a poisonous plant unless there's nothing else to eat, but we do worry that they will accidentally eat one while grabbing for grass. Our pasture maintenance efforts are coordinated by our wonderful pasture lady, who is one of our boarders but also happens to have an advanced degree in rangeland and pasture management. The most common poisonous plants we have in our pastures are members of the nightshade family - Black Nightshade, Purple Nightshade (Bittersweet), Horse-Nettle and occasionally Jimsonweed, and members of the milkweed family - most often Common Milkweed.

The yellow flowers belonged to a member of the mustard family, which does bloom very early. Although it's not poisonous, the horses don't eat it and it's fairly aggressive, so I'll pull up the plants I see while the ground is soft from the rain. I think it's Yellow Rocket (Barbarea vulgaris), and here's how the plants look in the pasture:

Here's a close-up of the flower head - it's a crucifer (like broccoli) so the flowers are four-petaled:

And here's a whole plant that I pulled:

I've always loved identifying things, and so I have a large collection of various plant identification guides, some of which are more useful than others. Interestingly enough, for both bird and plant identification, I find the guides with drawings generally more useful that those with photos - somehow the drawings capture the nuances better.

For identification of plants poisonous to horses, you can't do better than The Horse Owner's Field Guide to Toxic Plants, by Sandra Burger. It covers both woody and non-woody plants - most guides only cover the non-woody plants. We also save pieces out of horse magazines about toxic plants. I also use Common Weeds of the United States, by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which is very useful due to the detailed black and white drawings and the range maps, and Weeds of the Northern U.S. and Canada, by France Royer and Richard Dickinson, which also focuses on agricultural weeds. The second book has excellent descriptions, and also photos of the plant in its earliest stage of growth as well as the flower head and the whole plant, and also includes alternate common names.

I also do a lot of wildflower identification as I walk around our development - we have several hundred acres of partially restored prairie and wetlands - and many plants, both native and non-native, to identify. I also work as one of the volunteers who help to maintain our prairies by removing invasive non-native plants, and I especially spend time tending a couple of acres of prairie immediately behind our house. Generally, non-native plants which aren't invasive in the prairie are left alone. To do this work, I'm learning to identify both the native prairie plants and the many non-natives, both invasive and not. Sometimes I have to change hats when I move from pasture weeding to prairie maintenance - for example, I would leave those Yellow Rockets alone in the prairie but take them out in the pastures since our goal there is to maximize grazing quality.

I use a variety of guides for this, including those listed above and the resources listed in my sidebar under Nature Links, but also:

Wildflowers of Door County, by Paul and Marilyn Mahlberg

Spring Wildflowers of New England, by Marilyn Dwelley

Summer and Fall Wildflowers of New England, by Marilyn Dwelley

Illinois Wildflowers, by Don Kurz

Tallgrass Prairie Wildflowers, by Doug Ladd

Wildflowers of North America: a Guide to Field Identification, by Frank Venning

Field Guide to the Grasses, Sedges and Rushes of the United States, by Edward Knobel

Grasses: An Identification Guide, by Lauren Brown

Even though some of these guides cover other geographical areas, the overlap with our plants is extensive. I also have other guides for butterflies and moths, insects, fungi, trees and shrubs and animal wildlife.

As we actually get some things coming into bloom, other than the Common Dandelions (which I adore as they are one of the earliest nectar sources for both native bees and honeybees, and goldfinches eat the seeds and other small birds use the down in their nests) and the Yellow Rocket, I'll post about those.

And finally, there really are Eastern Bluebirds nesting in the bird box I monitor! I hope they persist and are not run off by the House (English) Sparrows.

More Birds

2009-04-30T10:13:00.000-07:00

My apologies to all the horse people - this seems to be turning for the moment into a bird blog!

At about noon yesterday, we had two unusual visitors to our backyard - two male Rose-breasted Grosbeaks! I've only seen these once before in the 8 years I've been living here - they're more of a forest bird and must be passing through. We do put out whole black-oil sunflower almost year round - they seemed to be interested in that. Here is male number 1 on the ground looking for seed:

And here is male number 2 sitting in the tree overlooking the feeding area:

Even with the poor quality of these pictures - through a window, low light and cropped, they are handsome birds. Later in the day, we also had a visit from a female - she looks a bit like a larger red-winged blackbird female - dark and streaky - with a heavy beak. At one point, all three birds were around.

Then, this morning, we had another visitor - a female Eastern Towhee - a very beautiful bird, although this photo doesn't do her justice:

Soft Spring Rain

2009-04-30T06:35:00.000-07:00

Today we're getting rain for the morning, and perhaps a let up in the PM - so it may be a riding day after all. It was about 50F as I turned the horses out, but it's supposed to get up into the mid 60s with little wind, so I left them unsheeted. They have the grass to focus on so I expect they won't be too uncomfortable.

The mud in the aisle to the pastures is worse than ever - our soil is heavy clay, which is very good for pasture grasses, but makes for very heavy, slippery mud. I haven't fallen down yet, but I've come close a couple of times. I have a couple of horses who are willing to be my "helper" - I can put a hand on the horse's neck as we walk through the worst of the mud and that helps me balance. Oddly enough, Blackjack, who is quite shy and cautious with people, is my best helper. He's usually very forward going to the pasture, but when I need him to help, I let the lead rope go loose, put a hand on his neck, and he slows down to match my pace and carefully stays right next to me. It's really quite a lovely thing.

Many of the grassland birds are in serious decline in our part of the world due to increasing development. Due to our pastures, I often have the good fortune to see wonderful grassland birds that are rare elsewhere. This morning I saw my first Eastern Meadowlarks - three that were flying up and down and squabbling. In the summer, I often see them perched on fences, singing their hearts out. They and the Bobolinks are my favorite pasture birds, and they both have wonderful songs. One time a number of years ago, we briefly had a flock of Cattle Egrets, following the horses to take advantage of the insects that were stirred up. We're actually outside their usual range, so that was wonderful to see - they're more of a southern bird.

So, even with the rain, it was a beautiful morning - the rain had that wonderful, soft spring feel, everything was amazingly green and the smells of earth and growing things were in the air.

Killdeer Nest

2009-04-29T12:08:00.000-07:00

As promised, I managed to get a few photos of the Killdeer nest while I was waiting for the farrier this morning. I didn't manage to get a picture of the bird on the nest, since it moved off as I approached. There are now 4 eggs, which I understand is the norm:

Usually it's much harder to see the eggs against the stony, gravelly background that the birds usually select as a nesting site. I worry that these eggs will be more visible to predators since they show up against the grass.

Here is the bird, doing its best to distract me from the nest:

As soon as I retreated, the bird went back to the nest. If the eggs survive, I hope to get some pictures of the tiny hatchlings when they arrive later in May - they're miniature adults and move very fast within hours of hatching although it's a while until they can fly.

Nobody Rolled

2009-04-27T10:27:00.000-07:00

We had a huge amount of rain from Saturday through Sunday morning - over 2.5 inches. Saturday it was warm - almost 80 - but then the temperature fell in the afternoon so some of the horses were shivering when they came in - a few got coolers put on until they warmed up. One of the hardest parts of spring is the changeable weather - sometimes you can't put on rain sheets when you'd like to because part of the day will be too warm. Then on Sunday, it was supposed to be done storming (after storming all night long) by 7 a.m. It was chilly - low 40s - but supposed to get up to almost 80 in the afternoon (we had a front go by and then reverse course, causing the wide temperature swings) - so the horses went out without sheets. And then, of course, it rained hard all morning - wet, cold horses but at least they had the grass to distract them. As promised, the sun finally came out and the temperature shot up to the high 70s.

As a result of so much rain in such a short period, on top of already wet soil, we now have standing water everywhere. The wonderful lady (a boarder) who supervises all of our pasture matters - rotations, seeding, weeding, etc., is very worried that the pastures are going to get all chopped up since they are so wet. They probably will, and we'll have to do some reseeding once things dry out a bit.

All the horses came in Sunday with beautiful soft coats - the rainwater really seems to make a difference. And they were all washed (mostly) clean - and nobody had rolled in the mud! It's hard to believe, but it was actually too wet to roll! I don't expect we'll escape today.

We have a Killdeer pair nesting in the field behind the barn - the nest is now circled by little red flags to keep the mowers away. I'll try for some pictures of the bird on the nest, and perhaps even the eggs. There are still a lot of spring migrants moving through, including a large flock of White-Crowned Sparrows eating seed off the ground at my house - they're very active, cheerful birds. On second thought, they may have been White-Throated Sparrows - I'll have to pay better attention when I see them next.

And, last but far from least on the wildlife front, as I was sitting eating lunch I felt a tickling on the back of my neck - you guessed it - the first tick of the season. These are the normal, large, dark dog ticks, not the tiny deer ticks that carry Lyme disease. I probably picked it up in the pastures - even though I was wearing tall mud boots and we have no tall grass yet, and even though I'd already had a shower, there it was. Ick, a tick! I was hoping the rain would keep them at bay for a while, but no such luck. We had a huge number of ticks last year on the horses - one day I took 22 off Maisie alone. It looks like the season is starting early! Now I'm going to constantly have that awful crawling feeling . . . !

Bluebirds and Green Frogs

2009-04-17T09:10:00.000-07:00

This morning I heard my first Green Frogs - I call them rubber band frogs because they sound like someone twanging a stretched rubber band. I also saw male Eastern Bluebirds twice - once in front of my house and once by the barn - unmistakeable even from a distance - the blue is amazingly intense. I hope a pair nests in the bluebird box in front of my house, from which I've already had to evict some English Sparrows, which outcompete the bluebirds for nesting spots and even kill the baby bluebirds to do so - bluebirds are on the decline in these parts.

Coyotes, Birds and Spring(?)

2009-03-30T11:29:00.000-07:00

This morning as I was walking to the barn, I saw a coyote gallop out of the geldings' dry lot, across the road in front of me and up the hill across the way. We have several styles of coyote - this one was medium sized, fawn/grey in color and looked to be healthy - he or she had a nice coat. We sometimes have large, husky dog looking coyotes that I suspect may be dog crosses, and there are also small ones that look almost foxlike. Earlier this winter we had a young coyote that would bed down in the hay next to the round bale holders at night. When I would turn out my first pair of horses, we would wake him up - first you'd just see the ears sticking up out of the hay, then he or she would stand up and trot off. One morning he was on the far side of the round bale, and didn't see us - Lily went out to eat at the bale, became very alert, started to trot and drove the coyote out of the dry lot! We haven't seen that coyote for several months now.

With the snow on the ground, the killdeers are bewildered. They may have already laid eggs, and were plaintively running around in the dry lots this morning looking for their nests. This happened last year, but they renested and didn't have any trouble raising at least one brood. We don't have a shortage of killdeers.

Even though there is snow and ice everywhere, it still feels like spring - perhaps it's the angle of the sun. The snow is melting fast. While I was working at my desk this morning, I saw a pair of goldfinches drinking where the downspout directs the meltwater from the roof. The goldfinches (at least the males) look odd now - they are midway between their winter and summer plumages and look somewhat patchy.

Owls in the Night

2009-03-27T17:16:00.000-07:00

Last night, in the middle of the night, I heard the soft hooting of a Great Horned Owl. There are several nesting pairs nearby - I know of a pair in the tall evergreens near the barn, and I believe there is also a pair in the enormous spruce in the grove behind our house. The owlets were probably hatched in February, although I haven't seen any yet.

We often hear them hooting in the night - they like to sit on our roof, or one of our neighbors' roofs, to hunt mice, voles or rabbits (or the stray house cat) in the open fields nearby. We sometimes see evidence of their hunting - bits of fur - although this can also be due to the hunting activity of coyotes.

They are magnificent birds, and when you see them fly at dusk their wings make no sound at all.

Walking

2009-03-18T11:32:00.000-07:00

Today at noon I went for a walk. It was about 50F, with a little bit of wind, and mostly cloudy - an average March day. I was rewarded with sightings of a Muskrat, two species of migrant ducks - a whole fleet of Lesser Scaups and one male Bufflehead - and a solitary Sandhill Crane flying overhead, identifiable by its distinctive call.

Snow and Hawk

2009-03-02T07:08:00.000-08:00

I just got back from the barn - it's 15F with a wind chill of 8. We are about 10 miles west of Lake Michigan, and sometimes get lake effect snow. It's very pretty and fluffy, and has a low water content so it doesn't (thankfully!) pack down into ice. It snowed a couple of inches last night, and it snowed hard the whole time I was working at the barn this morning. But because there were bands of snow moving off the lake, there were periods of partially blue skies, and at one point the sun was shining brightly while it was still snowing.

As I was walking back into the kitchen to get a cup of tea, there was a Cooper's Hawk perched on the small tree just outside our back window - right by our bird feeders. All hawks are beautiful, but to my mind the Cooper's is particularly elegant - very slim and with a long banded tail. He or she was looking to have breakfast. As I was creeping by the window to get to my camera, the hawk flew off, so no photo this time - perhaps next time!

Winter Sunrise

2009-03-01T17:51:00.000-08:00

Here is a lovely sunrise from a few days ago:

I'd never believe that the colors of the sunrises and sunsets could be real if I didn't see them with my own eyes!

First Cranes

2009-02-26T08:26:00.000-08:00

Today the dry lots were an unappealing mix of half-frozen mud interspersed with half-frozen puddles - the horses carefully picked and crunched their way through on the way to the hay bales. This afternoon, we're supposed to get heavy rain with a lot of wind and dropping temperatures, so even though the horses are out in their rain sheets, they'll probably come in this afternoon. Our pastures have no windbreaks or shelter, so a cold driving rain isn't great for turnout.

But spring is definitely coming! There are many birds singing, including lots of blackbirds, and great vees of Canada Geese have been flying north. And yesterday, while he was on a walk, my husband saw a group of sandhill cranes flying low, doing their clattering call. He thinks they were heading to one of our wetlands where they like to rest on their way to their main breeding grounds further north. Although someday we might even get a pair or two to breed here - there was a successful breeding pair last year just a few miles from here.

I'll try to remember that spring is coming as the high temperatures drop back into the 20s this weekend!

Very Small and Very Big

2009-02-23T10:50:00.000-08:00

When I am filling water troughs, I often stand next to the hydrant and just look around. Today I noticed many animal tracks in the snow. There were some that were amazingly tiny, and the prints had tiny clawmarks and an elongated heel. The animal (some sort of tiny rodent? but there were no tail marks) that made them must have weighed almost nothing, since the tracks barely left a dent in the very soft snow.

Then there's the amazingly big - are galaxies part of nature? I guess so, although on an unimaginably large scale. There is an amazing scientific project underway call Galaxy Zoo, that involves the classification of galaxies from sky surveys. If you go to the web site, you can sign up to be a galaxy classifier - no previous experience or training is required, as all the (easy) training is provided. This is truly harnessing the power of the internet, and the numbers of people needed, to do real science on a very large scale. You can spend minutes, or hours if you like (I have to use a timer to avoid getting sucked in), enjoying the sights of the universe in what is like a real, live, video game - but one that's actually useful! You can even store your favorite galaxies for future viewing.

First Blackbirds

2009-02-17T13:58:00.000-08:00

Today we saw our first red-winged blackbirds - two males were at our backyard platform feeder devouring sunflower seeds. It's in the 30s today and very windy, with rain and snow expected tonight and tomorrow. It must be a high risk strategy to come north so early, but if they succeed they'll have access to good blackbird territories. Soon we'll see and hear them claiming property in the marshes. Spring will come!

Winter Redux

2009-01-30T16:53:00.000-08:00

By noon, the wind chill still was below zero, so I went to check on the horses. As I expected, Dawn was standing up by the water tank in her "I'm dying so just kill me" posture - butt to the wind, head down and eyes squinched partly shut. She wouldn't come to the gate, so I hiked out to get her. Once I brought her in, she perked right up. Lily, who is the alpha mare, always stands nose to nose with Dawn when she is like that, perhaps to encourage her to hang in there. Several other mares looked like they might be cold, but they were just taking a noon nap so their postures weren't like Dawn's and their eyes were normal, and as soon as I took Dawn out of the pasture they all returned to the round bale to eat, just to let me know they really didn't want to go in yet. Noble also was cold, so in he came too. The other geldings were also OK, so they stayed out.

No wonder it's been feeling so cold - I just read that this is the 10th coldest January on record, and the coldest in 24 years. I think our high today was all of 12F.

As I was coming back from the barn this evening, the western sky was mostly clear, with one small band of clouds to the south. Our terrain is very open, so our views of the horizons are largely unobscured. The sun had just set, and the sky towards the horizon was a soft and wonderful peach. The cloud bank was backlit, and was a very dark smoky blueish gray, but had horizontal streaks of the most vivid pinkish red - it looked like wood that is burning hotly where the surface is dark but the vivid red is just underneath, moving like it is alive. By the time I went into the house the colors were already fading, so no photo.

I often marvel that, although I see almost every sunrise and sunset, each one is completely different. To think of it, that actually applies to my days as well - each one is very much the same in terms of the things I do and tasks I have, but each one is completely new and remarkable in itself. I consider it an important part of my life to pay close attention to all of this.

On Winter

2009-01-30T06:57:00.000-08:00

When I left for the barn this morning about 6:30 a.m., the temperature was in the single digits F with a wind chill slightly below zero. The high is only supposed to be in the mid teens. But it's one of those amazingly clear winter days where the sky is almost transparently blue. I think winter mornings here are often incredibly beautiful, and as the sky starts to lighten to the east, the colors are very soft, much more ethereal than the colors of the other seasons - delicate pinks and calm blues. Then up pops the sun, and it's much brighter and warmer now even than it was a month ago at the solstice. The angle of the sun in winter is also delightful, making the most wonderful shadows and lighting objects in that special winter way. Sometimes we get what I call the "mountains of the lake" - we're about 10 miles west of Lake Michigan, and when it's clear but the water temperatures are warmer than the air, there are often piled up low clouds just over the lake, backlit by the rising sun, that resemble a distant mountain range. After the sun rises, they generally disappear.

It's marginal for horse turnout today, as wind chills will barely get above zero. The wind is pretty sharp, and I could feel it through my work clothes even though I was wearing 6 layers, including a fairly heavy parka. I walked this morning - I generally walk to the barn as it's only 100 yards or do away - if it's so cold I have to drive it's too cold for the horses to go out all day. I rarely get cold when I work, as I'm moving all the time, except when I'm standing still while I fill the dry lot water troughs. Today was also a full balaclava/ski mask morning, and exposed skin got cold pretty quickly. I expect I'll pop over to the barn at noontime to see if anybody wants to go in - I'm guessing Dawn and Noble (my 28 year old Quarter Horse gelding who isn't very fat) will want to go in as they get cold the fastest.

Winter is also a wonderful time for observing hawks and great horned owls in action. Just this morning I say a Cooper's Hawk flying very fast down the road in front of the barn, and we often hear the owls in the late afternoons and at night. A few mornings ago, there was a very large hawk observing from a hedgerow as I turned out the horses - I didn't have my binoculars but I suspect it was a Red-tailed Hawk.

It's been a colder than normal winter - today's temperature is about 15 degrees below normal and this has been the pattern this year. We got a lot of snow in December as well, and it's still on the ground with the extras we've received in January. But spring is definitely on the way, as a few birds have started singing tentatively in the hedgerows (usually it's mid-February before there's much of that), and Lily's started shedding great gobs of white hair! - she's always the first.

We've been working hard to keep ice development at bay where the horses walk between the barns and the turnouts. We've discovered that not shoveling or plowing where people and horses will walk is the best system - the snow gets churned up and somewhat compressed but doesn't pack down into ice. We do have to shovel the gates out or otherwise we couldn't open them, and we do get some ice there which requires careful stepping by horses and people. Even when the parking lot looks like an ice rink, the aisles to the pastures have been mostly OK so far this winter. Our method does make extra work slogging through the snow with the horses - it's like doing the Stairmaster for a long time!

Beautiful Snow

2009-01-28T06:52:00.000-08:00

Last night, the temperatures were around 10F, with very little wind, and we had about an inch of snow. It is light, wonderful snow with very large feathery flakes. As I was filling water tanks and walking out into the geldings' dry lot to inspect a fence board, I looked more closely. The flakes had fallen down every which way, with some flat and some sticking up on end, so the surface of the snow is rumpled and pocked, on a very small scale. As the clouds cleared away and the sun came out, certain flakes caught the sunlight and gave the whole field of snow a lovely glittery sheen, again on the same regular small scale. How amazing! As I walked to and from the barn, there were many animal tracks, all partially obscured by the snow - you could see where they were but not what animal had made them - a better tracker than I probably could from the spacing.