Category: Latest From High Reaches

Categories
Latest From High Reaches

Cheeky Carolina Wrens

Spring is nesting time for lots of birds. Carolina wrens are one of those nesting now.

Wrens are interesting little birds. When unobserved, as far as they know, the males have a pleasant song. Most of the time they scold.

These are easy birds to recognize. They have longer beaks and a short tail that sticks up. Although there are several kinds of wrens, the Carolina wrens are the ones around here.

Baby birds in nest of Carolina wrens
No matter how hard the parent Carolina wrens work to bring insects to their growing babies, they are always starving. Any disturbance causes mouths to open, each hoping to be the lucky recipient of an insect.

These birds are always looking for places to build a nest. Buildings are a favorite haunt. I’ve had nests in my milkroom. The workshop is another favorite place, usually on a shelf.

This year the chosen spot is on top of the unplugged air compressor in the garage. A blanket is tossed over the top and the nest is tucked in under it. I guess I will check my tires in town for the next few weeks.

A Carolina wren nest looks haphazard, but isn’t really. They like to use long pieces of straw so the ends sticking out make it look messy.

These birds got noticed as they kept going in and out of the garage. They carried something in and came out with nothing.

Carolina wren with food for the nestlings
Carolina wren parents are on the go from first light to dark scouring the area for tasty caterpillars and other insects to bring back to feed their nestlings.

That is understandable as it takes thousands of insects like caterpillars to raise up those baby birds. And this couple has five mouths to keep stuffed.

These baby birds won’t be there long. That isn’t due to the four cats living here. It’s due to growing up fast. These will fledge or take off in only a couple of weeks now.

Once this family is grown and off on its own, the Carolina wrens will be looking for another place to build a nest. All it takes is an open door and the birds feel they have been invited in.

We’ll have to be careful to keep the house screen doors closed.

How well do you know vultures? Read about them in “Exploring the Ozark Hills“.

Categories
Latest From High Reaches

Irises Are Blooming

Flower gardens are so pretty, but I don’t have time to do much. One solution is to put in perennials, so my irises are blooming.

Here in the Ozarks, irises have been a popular flower for decades or longer. Lots of them in a wide variety of colors got planted. Like flowers do, these set seeds.

The result is wild irises. Usually these are near some old home site or along roads.

In the guidebooks irises are listed under blue. Wild irises around here are usually pale yellow and smaller than the garden grown ones.

My irises are blooming in mostly blues and purples. Some are yellow. One is white. A friend was separating her irises and passed on the rhizomes to me, so the colors are whatever came. It doesn’t matter as all of them are lovely.

irises are blooming in the Ozarks
My irises are blooming. There is a patch of lovely lavender in one spot. A patch of white stands tall in the flower section of my garden. Yellow is starting to show. Along the road wild irises are blooming here and there. These are often not as big and partially hidden by the grass.

The hummingbirds visit the flowers several times a day. Perhaps they find a meal. Perhaps they pollinate the flowers. Later the flowers will leave behind a few seed pods.

So far, the daffodils, the surprise lilies and the day lilies are happily spreading around the yard and into the woods. Interestingly, the orange day lilies never set seeds, yet still spread all over along the roads. My yard day lilies were dug up by the road grader one year. Their patch has doubled in size in spite of being mowed both by the mower and by the deer.

Although wild irises could be considered an invasive species, they, like the daffodils and ox eye daisies, are here to stay. Therefore, I will stop along the road while the irises are blooming to complete the set of pictures of irises for my botany project.

After the irises are done blooming, the blackberry lilies will open. Like the irises and the daffodils, these escaped from home gardens probably a century ago. We are a country of immigrants.

“Exploring the Ozark Hills” has several Ozark wildflowers among its essays.

Categories
Latest From High Reaches

Baby Chick Time

Every March I browse the online chicken catalog admiring the various breeds. Every April is baby chick time.

There are so many lovely chicken breeds to choose from. This year I ordered Columbian Wyandotte pullets. The white hens with black heads and necks look good and the Wyandottes are a friendly breed.

Baby chick time needs water jars and feeders
Fresh water is essential for chicks. I have several ancient glass bottoms for young chicks. For a week this needs refilling once a day. At two weeks it is refilled twice a day. By next week the chicks will graduate to a regular water fount. I’m glad my garden rain barrels are right behind the chick house.

Why is April baby chick time?

April is a good month for baby chick time or has been. Spring is supposed to be moving in. Not this year. And the pullets will start laying in the fall for a winter egg supply.

These twenty-two chicks have had a hard time. The temperatures bounce up and down. One day I turn off one light to keep them from being cooked. The next I turn it back on and put blankets over the top to keep them warm.

At two weeks old the chicks are putting on feathers. They belie the breed pictures. These pullets will range from nearly all white to mostly black. The one characteristic most of them have is a black line at the tops of their beaks.

Columbian Wyandotte chicks vary in color
Chickens love to eat. My baby chicks start with chick starter, go to grower, followed by egg crumbles which is later mixed with scratch feed and sunflower seeds, my adult hen ration. All of these pullets are Columbian Wyandottes. Most have lots of white feathers. A number of them have lots of black coloring. A couple seem to have black tipped feathers.

Baby Chicks Grow Fast

Up until now the chicks have been confined to half their little house. It’s easier to heat the smaller area and they don’t need the extra space.

This week the barrier will come down so the chicks have more room. Already they are trying out their wings to fly across their space.

Once the chicks are feathered out, I will open their door so they can explore the outdoors. Bugs beware. In the chicken world, if it moves, eat it.

Baby chick time only lasts a couple of months. My hen house won’t hold all these pullets so most will be sold. The others will move into the big hen house.

And I will start planning for next year.

Hazel Whitmore decides to raise pullets as a 4-H project in “Old Promises“.

Categories
Latest From High Reaches

Summer Visitors Arrive

Feeding the birds is great entertainment. Spring is especially so because all the summer visitors arrive.

Our bird feeder is nothing fancy. It’s a platform sitting on four T-posts with a roof structure over it. The sunflower seeds go out in a metal tray. Scratch feed is in a bowl. Water is in another bowl. Suet is in a cage.

All winter the usual crowd is around. Downy and Red-bellied woodpeckers enjoy the suet. Cardinals, titmice, morning doves, chickadees, nuthatches and juncos gorge on the sunflower seeds, milo and corn.

nuthatch and downy woodpecker on bird feeder
Nuthatches and downy woodpeckers are not summer visitors to the Ozarks. They enjoy the bird feeder all year expecially when winter weather sets in.

Blue jays are the first summer visitors to arrive. They are really close to being here year round, only missing a month or so.

After that, things change almost daily. The goldfinches and purple finches show up. The juncos leave as they are winter visitors.

Rose-breasted Grosbeaks have stopped by several years now. They would be welcome to stay for the summer, but don’t.

Orchard orioles are b ack this year. They move in on the hummingbird feeders to the dismay of these summer visitors. They also love the suet cake which was a surprise.

Towhees stay a day or two. Northern flickers raid the yard for ants and ignore the feeder. And the cowbirds move in. They are a rowdy bunch.

orchard oriole, one of the summer visitors, on bird feeder
Orchard orioles and summer visitors in the Ozarks. Most years they visit the bird feeder a week or so and move on. One year a pair stayed to nest. Their brilliant orange makes them easy to spot.

The neighborhood squirrels know about the feeder, but rarely visit. They have a stash of black walnuts to keep them busy.

Raccoons are the biggest problem. They too are one of the summer visitors. The feeder trays are taken in at dark every day and go out with fresh supplies in the morning.

There is usually one enterprising raccoon that comes during the day. It’s livetrapped, relocated and more cautious upon returning in a few days.

Sunflower seed prices have gone up by half this year. They are still a bargain as watching the bird feeder replaces fees for satellite TV, the only kind available here.

And the birds are much more entertaining.

Meet more Ozark residents and visitors in “Exploring the Ozark Hills“.

Categories
Latest From High Reaches

High Reaches Kids

The American Dairy Goat Association registers goats by herds as well as individuals. Each herd has a herd name that precedes the individual goat name. My herd name is High Reaches and has been for over forty years.

Spring is a special time for my herd as kids are being born. So far there are seven kids.

Twin High Reaches Nubian buck kids in pasture
These two livewires belong to Nubian doe High Reaches Juliette. They often stay in the barn lot for the day as there are so many other kids to play with. These two are the ring leaders for all kinds of activities like climbing on sleeping does.

High Reaches Juliette was first with twin bucks. She is polled and so is one of her kids.

High Reaches Spring was next with triplets. One is a spotted buck. Two are does, one spotted and the other not. Goats have two teats, so one is left out and gets a supplemental bottle.

Nubian doe High Reaches Spring with triplet kids
High Reaches Spring loves her triplets, but escapes to the pasture with the herd during the day as they are getting so lively and demanding.

High Reaches Agate and High Reaches Valerie surprised me one morning with their kids. Agate has a pretty spotted doe. Valerie has a spotted buck.

The pasture grasses are just starting to grow. The kids are getting lively, racing around playing. Soon they will want to go out and the short grass makes it easy for them to keep up with their mothers.

Spotted High Reaches Nubian doe kid
High Reaches Agate is proud of her little spotted Nubian doe kid. She is growing fast and out playing at a few days old.

Later on, the grasses go to seed with stalks as tall as the goats. Then it gets hard for even the adults to find their way around. All day they call to each other to keep together. It sounds like people in the grocery store.

My herd gets smaller every year now as I can no longer do all the work involved. And, a question every pet (I know goats are livestock, not pets, but the line gets blurred in a small herd.) owner must face is what happens to that animal if the owner is no longer around.

dreaming Nubian buck kid
Nubian doe High Reaches Valerie spends lots of time searching for her buck kid. He likes to find a quiet corner and sleep. His mother will eventually find him. Or he will get hungry and go looking for her.

I decided to stop adding to my herd. Therefore, all my kids are for sale at three months old.

In a way, this spoils having those fun kids as I know I will be saying good-bye soon. And, in a few years, the High Reaches herd will disappear which makes me sad and wondering what I will do without my goats to start and end each of my days.