I saw some very interesting birds at the feeder the other day. They were beautifully colored, and kept passing something back and forth between them.

From Wikipedia: “During courtship the male and female will sit together and pass small objects back and forth, such as flower petals or an insect. Mating pairs will sometimes rub their beaks together affectionately.”

From whatbird.com: “A group of waxwings are collectively known as an “ear-full” and a “museum” of waxwings.”

The plants we planted yesterday don’t look so good, and we don’t know why.  The stems are still looking okay, but the leaves are shriveled and/or brown.  It’s almost like they froze, but it didn’t get below freezing last night.  We’ll see what happens.

Emily and I switched hours with the kids today.  That means I worked this morning and played with them in the afternoon.  It was quite nice.  It’s a lot easier for me to relax and spend time with them when I’ve already gotten work out of the way.  When I have them in the morning, I feel like I need to be working.  It also meant I got to spend some one on one time with Delia, which I haven’t been doing much of lately since Henry requires a lot of chasing.  We made a kite out of a garbage bag and willow stalks that didn’t work very well (but was fun anyway) and we shoveled manure out of Cowboy’s paddock.  That may not sound like fun, but it was.

Henry continues to speed all over the place on his 4 wheeler.  I can’t believe he’s only two when I watch him ride it.   This evening we heard the four geese that have been visiting our pond coming from down Norby Rd (we hear them before we see them) so I told him to watch them land on the pond.  They chose to land on our shallow swampy pond instead, so he didn’t get to see them and was disappointed.  He ran over to his 4 wheeler and took off.  It’s really rough terrain around there, but he was determined to see the geese, and amazingly, the 4 wheeler made it!  He finally got stuck right near the pond, but I ran over and got him out.  He yelled “bye deese!” as he rode back to the driveway.

I need to read about geese.  I know they make strong pairs, but this year we have four that are always together.  Originally it was two and then the other two came.  The first two would try to chase them away, but after a while the second pair fought back and held their ground, and then I guess the original ones gave up.  Last year we had lots of ducks and this year I’ve only seen one or two on the pond all spring.  We seem to have one sandpiper that spends a lot of time on the banks of the pond too.

The sun is shining, the temperature is perfect, there’s no big wind.  Geese visit in the pond and honk when we get close.  Cowboy the pony is a pony!  In our yard!  Delia’s building – a stool out of wood, and various tools and weapons and toys out of sticks and string.  Caveman style.  Henry’s drawing with chalk on the driveway or zooming around on his four wheeler.

Ryan’s putting new handles on our Freecycle wheelbarrow, or putting a latch on Cowboy’s fence, or changing the oil in the lawnmower, or zooming around on a four wheeler.   I’m pulling grass out of the flower garden, feeding Cowboy carrots while I try to comb his mane, or zooming around on the lawnmower.

Sure, we’re kind of harried chasing the kids and animals around, and the house is a mess because we come in to eat and head right back outside again.  But overall, the past few days I’ve almost constantly been thinking how wonderful it is to live out here.

The American Bittern.

This is the goofiest bird I’ve ever seen.  I saw one last year from our bathroom window, but couldn’t identify it.  It had a long neck and reminded me a lot of the birds in the intro of The Partridge Family (which, I know, are supposed to be partridges).  It stood with its head up, and then put its head down and straight out to walk.

I was at the pond with Henry and I heard what sounded like the bubble bursting sound of a partially clogged drain.  I couldn’t figure out how the pond might be making the sound, and then I saw a long-legged bird walking through the water.  It headed straight for the tall brown grass near the pond, and stood still looking straight up.  All I had with me to take a picture was the cell phone, so I tried to get really close.  At one point I looked away for a second and looked back and thought the bird had somehow flown away that quickly because it blended in with the grass so well.  When I got within about 30 feet, another bittern I hadn’t even seen flew up out of the water, and then both took off for the woods.

When I got back inside, I went to whatbird.com and was able to pretty quickly identify it.

whatbird.com – Listen to the call!

Wikipedia -”If it senses that it has been seen, the American Bittern becomes motionless, with its bill pointed upward, causing it to blend into the reeds. It is most active at dusk. More often heard than seen, this bittern has a call that resembles a congested pump.”

I laughed when I read that because it exactly described my experience.

 Tonight we had our first fire of the year and we heard frogs for the first time.  Based on their calls, it seems we have:

• Spring Peepers (Pseudacris crucifer)
• Wood Frogs (Rana sylvatica)
• Western Chorus Frogs (Pseudacris triseriata)

This evening I went up into the woods and cut up some really large trees that fell across the trail.  Once I get (or make!) a trailer cart I’ll carry them out to the wood pile.

We have seven geese in our pond this morning!

Last night just before dark, Henry brought his boots into the living room for me to put on him.  He then said “ow-die!” which means “outside.”  It was a bit chilly by then, but we went outside and walked around and rode the 4 wheeler a bit.

He got up late yesterday (after both kids were up until almost 11 the night before) so we were hoping to keep him awake all day.  Around 4:30 we rode down to the swings, and soon the neighbor and some friends came by on her horses.  I took Henry over to pet one and she invited him to sit on it.  I put him up there and it became clear that he wasn’t going to get off the horse without a fight.  She walked him around a little and then I had to drag him off, screaming.  He cried all the way home and obviously needed a nap.  He slept until around 7:00, and once again it was about 10:45 before the kids were asleep.

We got the trampoline out yesterday and the big spools.  Once the ground thaws out more, we’re going to get the swingset set into the ground.

We had two ducks in our pond today!  The main pond is still frozen, but the little adjoining swampy one has open water and that’s where they were.

I also collected 6 eggs this morning, so the chickens have stepped it up.

Emily and the kids come back from Florida today!

I went for a walk in the woods with Foley today.  I noticed him chewing on something, which is fairly common.  There are deer bones to be found.  But when I got closer to this one, I noticed it still had pink meat on it.  I walked farther and found a leg.  I followed the trail of fur and found a big piece of hide.  I never did find the rest of the carcass, but man did they spread the fur around.  I also saw lots of deer and moose tracks, and moose and bear poop.  I put the trail camera out where I saw some tracks, so maybe I’ll have some nice pictures when I go back to get it.  I wanted to walk to one of the high ground spots but there was a lot of standing water in front of it.  I thought I could make it around by carefully stepping on snow and logs, but instead I wound up with freezing cold, soaked shoes.  There are a lot of downed trees nearby, so maybe I can cut some logs and lay them down to make a bridge.

Ryan and Delia are on Grassy Lake.  They drove to the lake and paddled to a campsite.  Here are two pictures they sent from the cell phone.

The night we saw the bear, Lucy woke me up at 1:30 by barking and howling.  I got up and saw her at the front window, carrying on like…  like…  like there was a bear in the front yard.  There wasn’t, at least not that I could see, but there were about a billion lightning bugs out there.  I’ve never seen so many.