Our New Wild "Hen"

So it seems our sexy rooster has lured in a new female fan... this lovely little pheasant has been hanging around the chicken coop for the last few weeks. We first saw her (or possibly a family member) nearer the property line & in the raspberries, but now she's a regular around the chicken run in the mornings when I toss out scratch. The story we're telling ourselves about her is that she's a juvenile recently separated from her mother and has set up camp where food is abundant and the presence of other birds comforting. She's increasingly tame and, unless I'm imagining it, getting prettier by the day. Her tail seems longer & her feather pattern more pronounced. The Dr. Doolittle in me wants her to move in with the chickens so we can keep her warm & fed come winter time. Yes, I know... farmers are tougher than that & guard their birds against dreaded disease-carrying wild birds... uh... yeah, right... not this farmer. So, I am a little less careful than I should be with the scratch in the morning & she feeds within 10 yards or so. Life is very very good.

Our New Wild "Hen"

Baby robin sighting!

One of the fledged babies was perching in the quince bush in front of the house today.

The baby robins fledge...

The baby robins decided to fledge today!

Green stuff on the farm

Some more pictures of life on the farm. We learned today that it takes a lot of seed to cover our garden in green manure and we don't have nearly enough, that may be the end of that plan for this year.

Headed out to spread the seed with our new "mother's day" spreader

Spreader in action

Pak Choi still growing

Old clump of strawberries are looking good

Mulched row in the garden

New growth on one of our balsams

New basswood looking good

Beeches are holding on, but not thriving - lost one this winter

High-bush cranberry getting ready to bloom

Lovely locust

New willow and Roxie

Guarding the robin family

Mamma robin and a hungry oriole

Mama robin was back today laying eggs (most likely), looks like they are going to try to make a go of it. Laurie also caught (in picture form) a oriole feeding at our quince, so beautiful and such a lucky catch.

New blueberries, a pair of robins, and some seedlings

Our blueberry order from Miller Nurseries arrived and our new plants are planted in the raised bed! Four each of Northcountry, Northblue, and Northsky low-bush blueberry plants plus one each of Polaris and Chippewa mid-bush blueberry plants.

Plus in other news, it looks like we have a pair of robins nesting over our front door. Now I might expect that from a phoebe, but not a robin! Pretty cool! Hopefully they are as successful as the pair of killdeer that nested in our driveway last year!

New blueberry bed

Nest building robin

Beet seedlings

Pak choi seedlings

Strawberries - we're so pleased with how they're doing!

Gooseberry in bloom

Bleeding heart in bloom