The Squirrel Family has grown!

The other day, I spotted a baby squirrel down in the large dead tree beside the barn. It was not much bigger than a chipmunk yet was an exact duplicate for Sammy.

Joanne spotted them just off the patio yesterday and also caught sight of one peeking around the corner of the solar power shed.

This morning just before breakfast; while I was in my office checking my emails, Joanne called me to the kitchen and asked me to bring my camera.

This is what we saw: These cinder blocks are 8"x8"x16" so you can see, these little fellows are not much bigger than about 5" without counting the tail.

Hoping against all odds that Momma would get into the scene as well so I could take a photo for comparison of size. My wish was granted and for an extra bonus, a Lark Sparrow also jumped into the shot, just for good measure.

Spring has indeed sprung at Hog Heaven!

The Eggs have Broken...

Because our little Flycatcher's nest is so high up in the corner of the front entry alcove, it's difficult to observe some of the activity as it happens, and we're dependent on a mirror image in aimed from the otherside of the entry. None the less, we have seen some activity of exciting proportions and have witnessed Ashley apparently feeding some hatched chicks in the mornings and evenings.

Our suspicions were founded when one morning we saw the little flashes of a wobbly baby bird's head as 'momma' returned to the nest. Then there was two little yellow beaks in view; ever so tiny and quite wobbly and unstable. I had to take some photos to record the moment, so with much difficulty and long waiting sessions, we were able to catch a couple of blurry, fuzzy images of the babies. Faces only a mother could love!
Then because my shots weren't as clear as I'd have hoped, I decided that to get a good look into the nest, I needed to wait until Ashley had left the nest and then I could quickly hold my camera close up to the nest and attempt a 'macro' type shot to see exactly what the contents of that nest were.

It worked! We are the proud landlords of four brand new baby Ash Throated Flycatchers, with fine grey fuzzy bodies and large yellow beaks. Amazing... Truly amazing indeed!
Now we'll just have to keep our distance and watch these chicks through to fledging and hope that all four of them survive this unseasonably hot summer. In the meantime 'momma' and her mate are busily catching tiny bugs to keep the chicks fed.
Other than the faint "peep" of the partent birds as they signal their return to the nest site with a beak full of food, we haven't heard much noise from the nest. Too early we expect, but we're both sure that soon; really soon, we'll be entertained with a quartet of little voices.
Life is; oh so good at Hog Heaven.

If You've got Water; They Will Come...

Yesterday I did my rounds of all the 5 gallon water buckets I have strategically located around the area of the house, and found a couple of them 'bone-dry' in just one day. Now I know that the weather has been a little warm, but that's a little unusual. Something large must have come by in the night and sucked up all the water.

The Javelina, though they usually come in packs of about 10-12 animals usually don't drink that much because they also get their moisture from eating Prickly Pear Cactuls. So I filled up all the buckets again and also some of the little 'bird-baths' we have out there. We'd keep an eye on those drink stations around dusk and see what comes by. Living at Hog Heaven is good for your neck muscles, because you spend a lot of time 'rubber-necking' out of all the windows trying to spot some of our visitors. Last night was no exception.

We'd just settled down to watch the Angels - Devil Rays baseball game when Joanne went into the kitchen for a glass of water. "Vern, Vern, Elk" was all she 'yelled' in a SOFT whisper. I muted the TV (which seemed superfluous because the Elk had obviously heard it through all the open windows, and went for my camera.

Joanne had noticed this huge 'cow' Elk stooping for a drink from the bucket I'd buried beside one of our mineral licks, but her attention had been focused so much that she'd missed the two Mule Deer standing less than twenty yards beyond, obviously waiting their turn at the 'lick' or water bucket. Unfortunately I wasn't quick enough to catch the Elk and Deer in a single framed photo, but did manage to capture these two shots.

The Mule Deer doe and young buck couldn't wait for that thirsty Elk, so they moved off to the right to the next water bucket. After quenching their thirst, they just browsed around on the lush green tufts of grass that had come alive with the first signs of spring. Life is Good at Hog Heaven.

Ashley has begun laying - we think

Our little Flycatchers have been busy since my last posting on this subject and the nest is complete and the hen has begun sitting on the nest in a more permanent fashion. We are expecting from three to seven creamy white eggs, blotched with brown and lavender, which the hen will incubate for about 15 days. Once hatched, the altrical young; (born naked), will remain on the nest for about two weeks.

In the meantime, we have posted our front door 'non-passe' as well as all of the front deck. This is a very exciting time for us and we feel quite protective of our little family and don't want to spoil it in any way.

The hen departs the nest from time to time to feed, and we expect that once she has laid the eggs and begun the incubation process that she will be fed by the male. This isn't guaranteed at this point, but the information we have is that she incubates the eggs alone.

Our proud little father returns to visit the nest every so often and the chatter of conversation is quite loud. We can only assume that he's telling her to hurry up and get those eggs laid, and her loud response would probably be for him leave that to her.

We haven't been able to determine exactly which of the birds is which at the moment; they are to all external appearances, identical. Only when she's on the nest do we know who's who.

There will be more posts and hopefully photos to follow as things progress. Our attention is also directed to the back yard where we have a female Jackrabbit; who has obviously just had a litter of leveret. We haven't seen the young yet, but the doe is a regular visitor; twice a day to hungrily devour a couple of handfulls of corn. Every morning I arise at 5:00 am and there she is waiting for me to feed her. It's such a treat for us to see Spring in action; up close and personal.

Life indeed is: "Living at Hog Heaven"

A bird named 'Ashley'

A couple of years ago, Joanne and I discovered a little bird hanging around the front door alcove just about sunset every day. Because we are greatly interested in birds and animals, we like to identify them as we discover new arivals. We have a beautiful 'Smithsonian' book on North American birds which has a 'sidebar' notation on each bird; where we can log the time our first spotting, the date, and also the location.
We identified our little 'front door vagrant' as an Ash Throated Flycatcher and learned that; if we provided him/her with a place to nest, that he/she may use it. This little fellow would spend the nights roosting upon the 3/8" wide trim work above the front door, which seemed a little precarious; and besides, he'd poop on the door trim as well. We didn't mind that part; it was easily cleaned up, but we were concerned for his comfort, for fear that he may go elsewhere.
So, I grabbed a piece of the trim molding that I had spare, and placed a little ledge just inside and above the entry alcove. I painted it so that it would look less obvious to humans, but hoped that our little Flycatcher; whom we'd affectionately named, Ashley, would find it. I even took a small mirror which was used as a sun visor mirror in a vehicle; mounted and aimed it on the opposite end of the alcove so that we could observe any activity on the ledge. We did notice that he/she was very much aware of our ledge but still continued to perch on the door trim overnight. Perhaps it was because the ledge didn't afford him/her a clear view of any intruder, that Ashley didn't want to use it. I’d almost decided to move it to the side closest to the door where he/she could see out into the open, but then we spotted Ashley and his girlfriend trying the ledge on for size one day.
That was last summer; about June of '07, but that visit was the only time we'd seen them on the ledge. Though we were ecstatic about the prospect of Mr. & Mrs. Ashley T. Flycatcher nesting on our 'ledge,' it wasn't to be. Perhaps they'd build a nest elsewhere for the 2007 season and were perhaps thinking about the following year. That must be it, I thought, so I'd decided to leave the ledge just as it was and give it another year or so. We wanted this to happen so much that we were prepared to leave it there for years if necessary. After all, Hog Heaven was for ALL the birds and animals; we were just residents of 'their' ranch.
To our delight, Ashley returned this spring; from his winter vacation in Central America, and all of a sudden we noticed there were a bunch of twigs and blades of grass on the ledge. Could this be? Yes indeed it was, because the pile of 'debris' on the ledge began to grow. Grateful that I hadn't moved or removed the ledge, we now quietly studied the progress.
Suddenly an idea came to me. I could point the camera at the mirror, and if I was to zoom it up, I might be able to see the birds in action. As you can see, that is exactly what I did and here are the results.
I'll post again after the eggs are laid and she's sitting on them, but for now, we're extremely delighted to see these lovely little birds making their home at our home.
Be sure that there will be more on this later, and hopefully some more photos as well.