Our great friend Jen came to visit this week. She was able to swing through MN on her way back to BC after she gave a talk at the American Livebearers association meeting in St. Louis, Missouri.
I picked her up after midnight and she got that strange experience of landing somewhere in the night without being able to actually see how she got here...There was an almost full moon, frogs singing in the fields, generally a little creepy for a person who lives in the city to be dropped into at 2am. Although to be fair she's the most hardcore girlfriend I have--she's done some amazing expeditions in Brazil and Africa, not to leave out our own adventures diving in BC.
The next day broke with ominous thunder and the forecast calling for significant rain. It was quite the introduction to Minnesota for her!! I did morning duties and let her sleep in. The house was dark, so I lit candles and we had an eggy breakfast and listened to music, chatted and caught up on some pretty major changes that we've both been through in the last year. Later she came out in the driving wind and rain and we worked outside in the barn and gardens until we were pretty much soaked through, and the lightning and thunder were getting a little scary. So fun to be working with her again.
If I don't write a bit every day there is so much I end up not recording...Some farm journal this is!
Migration is still going on for some birds. Our locals are already feeding nestlings, and some are very close to fledging. The warblers on the move still have very far to go into Canada to their breeding grounds. On the sunny days Jen spent here we'd stand on my deck and take photos of the warblers hunting in the spruce trees. It's pretty great having our very own viewing platform. We can see great egrets land out in middle field and hunt for unlucky voles and frogs. A great blue heron has been around this week, as well as a green heron. One surprise was when Jen and I were heading back through the property after attempting to photograph bobolinks. We heard a swainson's thrush! I didn't even know they were here in Minnesota. They are Glenn's favourite west coast bird, and very much remind us of home. This one seemed to have a little bit of a different dialect, but it was still definitely a swainson's.
http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/swainsons_thrush/id
Our other very special visitor was this bird:
He really looks and acts like our guinea 'Trouble' who went missing the night we brought Princey and Henry home. It would be a miracle that he survived the winter. But who knows. There aren't many farms near us who have guineas. The one I do know of has last summer's birds, not mature 2+ year olds like this boy.
He might move on though, unfortunately. He didn't spend the whole day with us yesterday, as he had for the three previous days. His brothers chase him and try to drive him away whenever he shows up.
Fern and the ducks tolerated him quite well. I really hope he shows up again today....
He was following Zantar around the other night and I found it so charming, like a little brother following the older wiser brother. Two species who really don't belong on this continent, foraging together.
Farewell Trouble!
Our unwelcome visitors are the ticks. We'd never seen black legged ticks on this property, either on the animals or ourselves. Until this week. Glenn had two of them deeply embedded in his skin. The nasty reaction around the bites was pretty shocking. The center was necrotic, the rest looked like a severe bruise, like when you pinch your skin in a door or hinge or something similar. I'm very pleased that he went to the doctor on Friday afternoon, and was able to get some antibiotics. They take lyme disease pretty seriously here. Better safe than sorry....
So the guineas have been let loose!! Not the flock size we'd planned, but hopefully they will help.
Watch out for the angry giraffe guineas!!!
OMG Oakley! he's hilarious. Is Glenn ok? :(
ReplyDelete