Even our weather station hasn't had enough sunlight. The unit outside in the vineyard has a lithium battery that is recharged by the sun. Our console in the office was flashing a message that the battery outside was low. It's not supposed to do that!
The wild bird life inside our deer fence is thriving, however. A few days ago, we noticed a killdeer sitting on a nest of four eggs in one of the rows of Sabrevois grapes. Yesterday I had to mow the grass there. The first time I passed her, the female stayed right there on the eggs with her wings extended to protect her little ones. Unfortunately, I had to disturb her a second time on the other side. This time she did the typical killdeer "act" of moving fifteen or so feet away from the nest and acting like she had a broken wing, hopping around to divert attention from her nest. It is all we can do to keep our dog Hank from spotting her. (He is wearing his electric training collar all the time in the vineyard now.) Since he is a natural-born bird dog, we have to be vigilant to be sure he isn't going after the mama.
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| Four killdeer eggs in the vineyard |
For the first time this year we have seen wild turkeys inside the vineyard, mostly just pecking around or flying low overhead. Yesterday, I saw what I thought was a turkey or a pheasant (I'm not sure about identifying the females of the two species) in my prairie flowers on the west side of the pole shed. It flew away. Then a few hours later, I peeked around the pole shed to look at my rhubarb, and there it was again, poking it's head out of the brush in the prairie. Later, Michael, Kate, and I went to check it out closer, when the mother wasn't there. Sure enough, we have a nest of eight turkey eggs in the prairie! Poor Hank... He is going to be on a very tight leash for the immediate future...
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| Eight turkey eggs in the wildflower prairie |
