you're gonna have to forgive me, but...

  
SO CUTE!!!

Baby gundis, here... KILLING ME.

so FUZZY.

SMOOCHIE SMOOCHIE!



k.

think I've recovered.

thanks.

bb

[heard over intercom: "Will the SCIENTIST PLEASE REPORT TO THE DESK? Will the SCIENTIST please RETURN to the DESK? ... Is there a science-trained person ANYWHERE in the BUILDING? ... Anyone? Anyone?"]

woah! Close encounter of the raptor kind...

You'll have to use your imagination a little on this...

Here's the scene (oh, 5 min ago):

So, the bare-looking tree on the extreme right of the photo is where a red-tail hawk landed. I, of course, immediately head out to charge it. No (externally obvious) response. Though I don't throw anything. Just stared.

Then I think, well, I'll just be practical and put my chicken away (Fanny, who was grazing in the garden attached to the dark coop you can see on the right).

Fine. So, I do.

Then, I'm back in the house just a few moments later see this creature flying VERY NEAR and LOW and think WHAT?!? Is it trying to get to the chickens in the light colored coop on the left? (if you click on the photo, you can see 2 of the hens)

It lands right at the base of the central Pondorosa pine in the above picture, between  the two coops.

A second later it flies up with a small mammal of some sort (terrified, doomed) in it's talons, and heads south to rest in another tree (a snag) on our property (see fuzzy pic below). Dining in peace, further from that nosey biologist who keeps taking pictures or yelling.

Guess I'm wildlife's version of paparazzi.

Anyhow, pretty thrilling to witness. That is a SERIOUSLY BIG BIRD.

Crikey. Pulse still a little elevated from it all.

Cool!

xo biobabbler

wake up call, a la owl

At around 5 a.m. today, when I was being harassed by my cat who was bored (i.e. I was unwillingly and grumpily awake in the dark) I was then happily awake to hear a great horned owl call VERY near my (closed) window. It was the classic "who cooks for you" call. So, once I kicked the cat out of the room, I got to go back to sleep to the lovely call of a friendly neighbor. =) It does happen around here, but not that often, and this was v. close. SO COOL!

Of course, it's really probably yet ANOTHER potential predator of my chickens, but they're in their respective coops when it's dark, so I don't sweat them (yet).

And if you wanna wake up your cats,  surf the web (cornell is always great, but this time I went to www.owlpages.com) and find owl calls and play them. That will get their attention. =)

Speaking of chickens, here's Fanny (her name is a story for another time), our Rhode Island Red, ably pointing out what I discovered when I removed a chunk of flagstone (to actually use) from our yard, to discover tunnels and a very tidy grainery of sorts. The little grass seeds were stacked SO neatly, it was amazing. I felt very bad I was clearly messing up someone's winter storage plans, but it was early enough in the season, I figured they'd have time to implement a plan B.

Until next time...biobabbler