The Grosbeaks are back!

We have been enjoying feeding the birds and watching their antics. The cats probably enjoy watching the birds more than we do.
This week the Rose-breasted Grosbeaks returned! We love the grosbeaks for their ugly beaks and the males' beautiful markings. The females look like little hawks. Last year the Grosbeaks stayed all winter and we had at least two pairs all summer. They must have known this past winter would be a hard one and decided to spend it somewhere warmer.

Deer damage

The deer have finally found us.  We didn't have any deer damage last winter, but this year is a whole other story.  We heard the deer hanging out on the hill to the north of our property, then we saw prints and a little damage to my apple trees. Then the herd moved in.

Every night at least nine deer come to nibble their way around our yard.
So far they have eaten all of the fruiting branches they could reach on the apple trees.

They have also decimated the yew bush next to the outhouse; which I thought was poisonous, but apparently not to deer.

They have nibbled the tips off this azalea.

But seem to, so far, be leaving alone my blueberries and raspberries. They are loving the arborvitae and cedar trees as well.  Must be a rough winter for them.

Ewww, Stink bug poo

We, along with many in eastern PA, had a huge number of stink bugs this past year.  I have had to clean up quite a bit of stink bug poo inside the house.  But the siding on either side of the front door was the worst. 

Our siding is old aluminum which has been painted.  Warm water with detergent and a scrub brush wasn't enough; I needed to add a little bleach as well.  Even then, if you look closely, you can still see the marks.

But overall the porch, and while I was at it I washed the rest of the front of the house, looks so much better. Now I will feel better about putting up Christmas decorations.

We've been discussing what type/color of siding to put on the house. Is there a color called "Stink bug poo brown"?????

Our wild visitors

For a few days this week we have been having some wild visitors.  We wondered if our tom turkey would call any wild turkeys.  Well, apparently the answer is yes.
Monday evening my daughters found these visitors:

The two turkeys on the left are the wild ones.  There was a tom and a hen.  The tom and our tom were trying to fight through the fence.  My daughters went out to scare them away and got a few pictures. Here they are running away.

They've been back a few times and we have all seen them now.  Spring gobbler season is April 27-May 31.  It will be interesting to see what happens if we get a lot of hunters in the woods gobbling since our tom gobbles at every little noise.  Hopefully the hens won't try to go to the calling in the woods.  They now have 13 eggs in a nest that I am hoping they won't want to leave.

Our latest visitor

The wildlife around here continues to entertain us.  Our latest visitor was this Great Blue Heron.

I went outside to get firewood when all of a sudden the chickens and turkeys started running around making lots of strange noises.  I looked up to see if a hawk was nearby and saw the heron flying over the house and then landing next to the stream.  He/She walked up the stream for a couple of minutes then flew away.  I love to watch Great Blue Herons fly; they look so prehistoric. 
We have not seen any fish in our stream, it's too shallow and fast moving I think.  But we have seen frogs, so maybe that is what the heron was searching for.
After the heron flew away we noticed that we couldn't see any chickens in their yard, except for our rooster.  Apparently the rooster's noises made all the chickens hide under and in the chicken house.  Way to go Cassius!
When my daughter uploaded the pictures of the heron onto my laptop she found the pictures she took of our one, very brief, snow fall. I was at work that day and asked her to take lots of pictures since the weather report made it likely that the snow would be melted by the time I would be home and it would be daylight.
So here are a few:

The weather forecast is calling for 1-3 inches starting Christmas Eve so hopefully we will have a white Christmas!

The fox

We've had a number of sitings of the fox in the past week.  He/She always is walking up from the stream, along the edge of the goats' pen, towards the woods on the north side of our property.  So far the fox has left our chickens and turkeys alone.  Although, I've probably just jinxed them.
My daughter got some great pictures of the fox hunting mice or chipmunks in the field.  It looked just like a nature film and we felt very special to be able to see the fox in action (as long as no poultry are harmed in the process).

Hopefully, the fox will leave our animals alone.  However, if we start having poultry attacks we will need to figure out something.  After much searching on the web I found out legally we will be able to trap the fox and either "euthanize it within 24 hours or release it within the same county with the owner's permission."  But only if we have property damage.  Turns out Alan's brother's property includes one acre located in Berks county so we could trap and then release the fox there.  So let's hope we won't have to buy a really large trap for the fox.

Predators!

Today was an interesting day of predators.  Our three Mottled Java hens do not like to stay in the pen and can fly pretty well, so they spend most of their day outside the chicken run.  They like to hang out under the bird feeder and clean up the sunflower seeds.  This morning I saw a lot of flapping going on at the edge of the stream on the other side of the bird feeders.  A Red Tail Hawk was attacking one of the Mottled Java hens, and she was putting up a pretty good fight.  There was lots of squawking going on as well.  When I opened up the patio door the hawk took off.  The hens hid under some arborvitae for the rest of the morning, but all of them were back to their normal activities by the afternoon.

When I went out to feed later this evening I spied a red fox moving slowly through the meadow near the chickens.  I was able to grab a quick picture, then we scared it away with a lot of very loud noise.

That;s the fox in nearly the middle of the picture.  He/She is about 50 feet from the chickens who insist on staying outside the pen every day.  I guess they need their wings clipped again to keep them in and safe.