Birds of a Feather Flock together

One of Our Great Blue Herons

Boy am I glad they do too.  I am sitting at my desk and looking out the window at the bird box we put up on our old father oak tree.  We put the box up for our Northern Flickers but how were they to know.  The box has been taken over by a Robin couple.  I am sooo excited!  I get to watch them all the time now.  The box is so big that they could share but obviously they won't.  I will just have to make some more nesting boxes.  What a pity more birds.  We currently have a what seems to be a pair of Great Herons on the property and at least one Egret.  A couple of weeks ago we were fortunate enough to observe a pair of Hooded Mergansers courting.  This is really something to see for their hoods are always up during their courtship.  We have seen them many times before but not with their hoods up.  They are sooo beautiful.  The male has a black hood and the female has a golden brown hood.  I think we were very fortunate to see the courtship of these birds.
We also have a pair of Mallards and a pair of Wood ducks.  We are hoping that all of our nesting boxes will be occupied this year.  I am looking forward to cleaning them out at the end of the season.  I am hoping for a few broken eggs.  Maybe even a whole egg that didn't hatch.  I will be sure to take lots of pictures and share them with you all. 
Last year we were fortunate enough to have a pair of Canadian Geese nest on the ranch.  They hatched 5 goslings but none made it to adulthood.  How sad.  Tis is the way of life.  With so many predators in the air they were just not meant to be.  Although it is possible that the dogs got the babies but I doubt it.  We are hopeful for a better survival rate this year.  All one can do is hope.  Well we could put up some fencing around the upper pond and hope that the geese are protected that was but fencing is expensive so I doubt that will happen.  Oh well. 

 

Installation of Duck Nesting Box

It is such a beautiful day here today.  The sun is shining, the sky is mostly blue there are a few clouds out and the sheep are everywhere.  It seems that all they ever do is eat, poop and baa.  They are the noisiest creatures.  I swear they are rarely quiet!  It can be rather annoying.  I wish we could run miniature horses here instead of sheep.  The smells and sounds would be so much more pleasant and none of us eat lamb anyway.