Window Strikes

Spring is bird time.  I love birds.  I love that feeding birds allows me to observe their behaviour up close.  But I hate passively killing birds by having large windows to which birds are constantly drawn.  

Golden-crowned Kinglet found under our picture window.

  My previous method of dealing with this problem was to not wash my windows, but sometimes I actually want to see through them...

Common Redpoll

Dead birds make me sad.  So when BirdWatching Magazine had an article on preventing window strikes I was keen to try out one of the suggestions.  We chose to use paracord fastened to a piece of wooden trim hanging from the outside of the window.

Our picture window with paracord installed.

The winter before we put up the paracord we had about 500 Common Redpolls visiting our feeders every day.  This led to more window strikes than I care to remember. 

As soon as we read the BirdWatching article we got to work.  “We” meaning my wonderful husband.  In the year and a half since we set the system up we have had 3 known window strikes, 2 where I watched birds veer at the last moment and merely glance off the window, and 1 on an unprotected basement window.   We have had chickadees and hummingbirds land on the paracord to pick up bugs attached to it.  We can see out the window and now that it is being cleaned regularly sometimes even take reasonable pictures through it.

Sharp-shinned Hawk

After a recent study listing window strikes as one of the biggest killers of migratory songbirds, it felt pretty good to have done our small part at such a small cost.  It kind of gives you a warm, happy feeling.  The only bad news is that now I have to clean my windows. Sigh.  I’ll go get the squeegee.

Saturday Scout

What did you do with your Saturday, Scout?

Today I tried to sleep.

And dream of snow.

Oh, sweet glorious snow.

How I miss you.

Excuses Part 1

I'm not trying to excuse my behaviour.  Okay, maybe a little.  I know I've neglected the blog.  But let me explain:  a couple times a year I get a pass and get to take a break from Clay Swamp Acres.  

This time our adventure took us to the desert for some southern feathers and foliage.  We spent two weeks in sunny Arizona enjoying all the wildflowers, birds, reptiles, sunshine, etc. we could find.  And although it was still chilly winter (temperatures in the mid-twenties, Celsius) we saw some fantastic sights.  Here are a few highlights from our trip:

We stayed a few days at the Crickethead Inn just outside Tucson. They are right on the edge of Saguaro National Park and offer the best views and breakfast in the area.  This was the view we took in before breakfast:

The view to Saguaro National Park from our B & B, Crickethead Inn

 Part of the reason we went to Arizona this time was because there had been a little rain during the winter and we were hoping for a good wildflower year.  So we saw some flowers:

Fairyduster

Firecracker Penstemon

California Poppy

Desert Globemallow - I think?

We saw a few more flowers, and some other things too!  Next time I'll talk about the birds, including our long-time nemesis bird...

"Tro-gon"  

I'll tell you about it next time.

Saturday Scout: Flip Book

Scout has been busy all week preparing a flip book to show what he's been doing this week.  You can make one at home, too!  Here are the simple steps to turn this post into a fun flip book:

1. Print all six pictures from this post.

2. Cut out pictures and stack them in order from first to last.

3. Staple left edge of pictures together.

4. Turn on "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" to the scene where the knights are running toward the castle; turn up volume.

4. Using your thumb, quickly flip pages to see Scout run.

Happy Saturday!

More Chickens? What the Whak?

Husbands should not go away and leave their wannabe farmer wives home alone in the spring.  How many chickens are enough?  I still haven’t been able to answer this question.  But last spring eleven was definitely not the right answer.  More were required.  So more were purchased.  

I found a great breeder in the Cariboo, Snowvale Heritage Chickens, who bred Silver Laced Wyandottes (SLW).  This was the breed I wanted most.  All speckly and spotty and full of attitude.  

"Look at the size of those feet! They're scary big."

I put in an order for six SLW and let myself be talked into a couple Barred Plymouth Rocks (BPR) as well.  

Barred Plymouth Rock

Why not?  I was already adding to our tiny flock so what was a couple more?  I brought the 2-week old peepers home in a box with some pine shavings and set them up in their own brooder for two weeks of quarantine fun. 

 Now I had two cardboard box-brooders in the basement: one with 11 chicks in the bedroom and one with 8 chicks by the woodstove.  Twice the cleaning, feeding, and watering.  Twice the fluff.  I spent what little spare time I had (between dog care, wild bird feeder cleaning, gardening, and working) watching “chicken t.v.”

Scout was quite interested as well.  Not very helpful, but very interested.

Now I had lots of chickens.  Enough? Yes.  But would I get more anyway? Yes. Would that go well. No.  But I'll tell you about it another day.

Saturday Scout

Scout's to do list for the weekend:

• Nap.

• Clean the culverts.

• Think about taking another nap, because boy, did I work hard.

A Walk in the Woods March 30

Before the icy rain began, the sky was plumbeous, backlit with sunlight.  The snow was shrinking back, slipping into the swale and away.  

 I could stamp on ice four inches thick and break it.  Beautiful!  And oh, the green. Needles on trees, lichen on branches, moss emerging from the ground.  

 Tiny moss forests and lichen valleys.  Wntergreen, which does exactly what it's name suggests. To know that green persists under the deep snow...

Bunchberry, or dwarf dogwood, wearing last year’s red and somehow still in style.  

 

The textures and patterns were entrancing.

And what a gift!  I heard them long before I saw them: the tiny ringing contact calls of Golden-crowned Kinglets.  Binoculars and camera safely tucked away in the house, check.  Fortunately  one kindly sprite popped out on a moss-cloaked stump three metres away, trilled, hopped up to a branch, trilled again, and was gone.  It was the size of a ping pong ball. I was delighted.

After I returned with camera and binoculars the trees above me rang with their contact calls and song.  Golden-crowned Kinglets sing like chickadees warming up to their full song, but then they break out into tiny fairy laughter.  I spotted one kinglet high in a tree above me, then a Black-capped Chickadee popped into view beside it.  What a monster next to the kinglet!  Its song was deep and sonorous next to the kinglet's.

I was so caught up in the wonder of all this newly exposed colour and sound that I didn’t notice the rain begin.  When I stood up from ogling a small patch of bearberry I noticed a drop or two.  I told my trusty assistant it was time to head home.  He did not object.  

By the time we reached the yard icy pellets were assailing from above. I was soaked.  My trusty assistant appeared wet but no water penetrated his thick fur coat.  

What a walk.

Oh, and by the way,  this is what we woke to the next day.

Spring!