Bits and Pieces

 On the south side of the house, the snow is going fast and Boots enjoys the brown grass and sun.

 Alpine is full and sleepy, too sleepy to mind a hitch hiker. In the winter, I often see the magpies burrowing into the hair to keep their feet warm.

 On the north side, our garden is still under a foot of snow. Only 5 more weeks 'till planting season!

The apple, plum and crabapple orchard is looking pretty laid back.

I think I will be like Boots and spend more time on the south side!

Hello, Woody!

This is a fellow that you hear more than you see. He is a Pileated Woodpecker, one of the largest woodpeckers around, slightly bigger than a crow. We had a pair around today and I hope that they see fit to nest. They are very noisy in call, but extremely silent when flying through the woods.

Unfortunately, they do not frequent feeders, or I could get some real good close ups of them. Fortunately, I now have a camera that allows me to "get close" without getting close. Over the next few weeks,I will be looking for a rectangular hole in one of my poplar trees. If I find it, I will stake it out with the camera and a tripod. It looks like spring is here. The exotic birds are coming back!

Catching Up!

This little guy was one of the 4 that I found in the nest by our hot tub. I have been checking lately and there were only 2 left, and as I was taking a picture, they flew. This fellow landed in the middle of the driveway, so I put him back in the nest. He flew off again with mother keeping a very close eye on him. We think that he is a white capped sparrow.

These are the start of the chicken move to heritage birds. These three are one week old Colombian Wyandottes, a dual purpose bird that is very striking in colour. Hopefully, one of them will be a rooster.
The supplier, a young entrepreneur from Westlock also had these Golden Laced Wyandottes at three months old. I picked up eight. I will likely try to get some silver laced birds from him whenever they become available, hopefully, next June. Again, I hope that at least one will be a male.

I said after the first year that I would never get the Cornish Giants again, or any bird that was raised solely for meat. By 15 weeks, they turn out so heavy that they cannot stand, and cannot move to get food. Their body cavities fill up with fluid, and basically they suffocate, or have heart attacks. I will leave such cruelty to the Colonel Saunders of the world. I will also not support those establishments that promote a cage 12x12x12, where the bird never gets any freedom or sunlight. Those dimensions are in inches by the way.

That is my rant for the day!

So, our flock will likely look like 4 Rhode Island Reds, 3 Colombian Wyandottes, 8 Golden Laced Wyandottes, 5 White Leghorns and 8 Red Sussex Cross. The rest will likely go into the freezer. Oh, yeah, and 9 turkeys until October. that is 3 times what we over wintered for last year. I may have to rethink this, although, any surplus roosters will also go into the freezer.