Farm Friend Friday: Creatures are stirring

 Bruno Bratanter on the gate

With the daytime temperatures back up into the 70's all life was stirring again. I felt like I was coming out of hibernation this week, slowly resuming life as we know it. The chickens were glad to be back outside scratching in the creek.

Bruno is our only rooster that can fly to the tops of trees (and has on occasion required me standing on the top of a tall ladder to retrieve him at nightfall). His beak is in need of a trim. I love his black 'beard' and mullet like 'do. The Brabanters come from Belgium and are very personable. The hens fly to my shoulder when I enter the coop, and would happily ride around there like a pirate's parrot all day if I would let them!

This week I noticed one of the neighbor's Mallard ducks sitting in the hedgerow not far from our front door.

Farmer Rick was certain it was just a bag that had blown down there. On closer inspection, we were both correct: It was a tan plastic bag neatly camouflaging a female mallard presumably sitting on eggs.

You can't see me! (Click to biggify!)

Last year one of the ducks hatched 19 ducklings in a flowerbed closer to our driveway. This nest is just a few feet from our door!

I also noticed the bluebird nest box in the Short Grass Prairie has a bluebird nest in it. They are unmistakable, made of soft green moss lined with feathers. I've seen her going in and out, so hopefully I will be able to photograph the babies soon. It's been a couple years since we had bluebirds; last year the box was home to Tufted Titmice.

Tiger Girl

The beautifully marked wild cat Tiger Girl showed up to accompany me on my walk. She's a good mouser and I hope she will make this her home. We see her once or twice a week, and have not found anyone who claims her.

Moon over the prairie

Interestingly, the honeybees have been making a beeline to the 5 gallon buckets filled with coffee grounds I pick up at coffee shops in town. They must be getting some sustenance out of it. Or a buzz! Will our honey be caffeinated?

Patches

Patches, our resident armadillo has been out and about snooting through the grasses and digging for grubs. I was able to follow him at a close distance in this video taken a couple days ago. You'll see early on he detects me by smell, but continues about his business. It is only at the end I crunch something underfoot that he goes bounding away.

I felt like an armadillo paparazza! This week I've also potted up hundreds of Salvias, Mulleins, Jewels of Opar, and Coneflowers and moved them from the propagation room into the greenhouse. There are so many more still to do! Here's a photo of the greenhouse at night, glowing like a beacon.

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Round Pegs in Square Holes

Last year, when Farmer Rick was digging the trench for the sewer line reroute, Cody our backyard dog discovered an armadillo using it as a highway late one night. Awakened by constant barking--which could only mean "critter!"--we put the dog in the shed and let the 'dillo escape.

However, the poor creature was so rattled it dove into the fence, wedging its round body firmly into the square wire hole. At first we tried to pull him out, but the anatomy of his bands made that against the grain, so to speak. This left us with the choice of either cutting our fence, or pushing two thirds of a very round rear through. We chose the latter, and discovered--with much grunting on all accounts--that you can put a round peg in a square hole.

That 'dillo ran at the speed of light once he popped through. Seems like we scraped off a few scales in the process. We see him around almost every day, and have named him Patches, for obvious reasons.

This morning, Patches was in the front yard when I went to let the chickens out, so I grabbed my camera and got really close. For those of you that don't know, armadillos are relatively deaf and blind. They use their sense of smell and feel for vibrations. If you move slowly and are down wind of them you can pretty much get right next to them. In this case I was laying in the grass about three feet away.