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We've had a very wet chilly spring and summer so far. It hasn't gotten warmer than 65F and July is usually our summer peak because of 18 hours of sunlight. Still, it isn't all bad. The chill, wind, and wet makes conditions harder for biting bugs!
One of the most striking differences has been the absence of sandhill cranes. Our neighborhood has hosted a very dominant nesting pair for years. You can hear and see them all day every day except when they're incubating. They get sneaky and quiet until any chicks are out of the nest and following their parents as they forage. A pair did show up in April only to discover the ground 1' deep in hardpacked snow. They stuck it out for a week or so then disappeared. I haven't even heard more than one or two individual cranes overhead all summer either. Usually there are small flocks or single non-breeders soaring around most days. There are cranes on their usual territories down in town but not up here. Eerily quiet.
To make up for the missing cranes I do seem to have a goshawk nest somewhere near the house. I've spotted two fledged juveniles over the past week or so. That's one bird's nest I don't particularly want too close. I value my scalp thanks very much!
Normally, our fireweed starts blooming in July. The hillsides turn purple with it all over the Kenai Peninsula. There's a huge swath of it surrounding my defensive clearing around the house. To date the vast majority of plants are barely budded and I suspect they won't flower at all. Cow parsnips are everywhere fireweed isn't and normally turn roadsides and slopes white; not so this year. The flowerheads are already brown. Purple cranesbill did bloom but not the usual show. Red elderberries are turning red but there are a lot of dead branches that never leafed out in spring. Indian paintbrush and yarrow did what they usually do but goldenrods are barely budded.
OK, I know all of these are native perennials and they'll all be back next year, but it has been very quiet in terms of wildflowers. A wet green year.
Last edited by Parnassia; 08-19-2023 at 01:50 PM..
You have a barn full of horses, you'll need to have cats to take care of the rats.
I've had horses, pigs, cattle, goats, chickens, and ducks, but never a rat thanks to not living in their habitat. I do have fishers, short-tailed weasels, fox, coyotes, barred owls, and various hawks that take care of some of the mice and voles. We had barn cats until the coyotes, fox, and fishers got them. That was a hard lesson learned. There are feral cats around, but we still have mice.
The first hawks to hang out in close proximity to my main dwelling this year. A pair of red tails hung out on the power pole kitty corner to my pad yesterday. They stayed till this morning and then split. They were having quite the romantic interlude. Preening each other and getting all cuddly. I reckon they must have been in a long transit from somewhere cuz they did seem kinda tuckered out.
The hunting is good around here so grabbing a snack would have been easy enough but I didn't notice any discarded remains of surgical removal either up the pole or on the ground after they took their leave.
There was a little hawk flying low around my backyard. Driving my dog nuts as he kept trying to chase it. The hawk came around again and again, which made me wonder if he was teasing the dog.
I don't know what he was. Quite small, although not nearly as small as a kestrel.
I hope he is nesting someplace close by. I tried to convince the dog to not chase because we want the hawk around, but I wasn't making much headway with the dog and it didn't help that the hawk kept circling the yard no more than 10 feet up and doing his whistling all the time. He was quite obviously not impressed by the dog, not at all.
I'm frequently seeing wild turkeys. It appears that they have discovered that tucked around between houses in a residential zone is a safe place for a delicious game bird to live. No one can shoot so close to houses.
There was a little hawk flying low around my backyard. Driving my dog nuts as he kept trying to chase it. The hawk came around again and again, which made me wonder if he was teasing the dog.
I don't know what he was. Quite small, although not nearly as small as a kestrel.
I hope he is nesting someplace close by. I tried to convince the dog to not chase because we want the hawk around, but I wasn't making much headway with the dog and it didn't help that the hawk kept circling the yard no more than 10 feet up and doing his whistling all the time. He was quite obviously not impressed by the dog, not at all.
Sharp shinned? Broad winged? Merlin? Lots of juveniles of the year with indistinct markings floating around right now. Sharpies tend to be quiet except near their nests, so a vocal hawk is more likely to be one of the others.
Last edited by Parnassia; 08-20-2023 at 04:51 PM..
I hear and see the hummingbirds fighting in my yard every day, but I've never seen one die from a fight. I can hear a "whapping" kind of sound when their wings are hitting each other during combat, but they usually live to fight another day.
I read they are so defensive because they need to feed every 15 to 20 minutes or else they can die. Their metabolisms are so fast. So, once they find a dependable food source, they'll guard it violently.
One cool thing about having a hummingbird perch near a feeder - when they groom themselves, I can occasionally find one of their feathers. It looks like a perfectly formed, but almost impossibly small feather.
A couple of weeks ago DH was busy filling the yard with hummingbird feeders to help them gas up for their flight south. So we've had quite a show of the feisty little guys lately.
This morning I looked out the window and saw a female perching. Next to her was something tiny. I took a closer look and realized it was a chick. Never seen one before.
How sweet! We've had very few hummers this year. I need to buy another feeder since they are so territorial and chase off the weaker ones. I saw that having a 2nd feeder takes care of this. Maybe I'll get some bigger numbers that way.
Everything is different this year. Last year it was black ants. Huge. This year it's red ants. Huge. Nasty squirrels getting into "squirrel-proof" feeders. Hardly any birds, because more cats on our street. The mice are out of control even with more cats around. Really miss seeing all the birds we've gotten in years past.
I am so sorry I cannot rep you for this. That is so cool!
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