Good morning!
I saw this beautiful bird at the Denver Zoo. I forgot to take a photo of the name so, I have no idea what kind of bird this is. (If anyone knows the name, please share in the comments) These were taken through the glass of the enclosure. They came out better than I expected.
I am not sure the look on it’s face would qualify as happiness (below). Maybe it’s doing an angry blue bird impression.
Good morning,
I have been posting about predator problems with my chickens. Recently we lost a young chicken and an adult chicken, most likely to raccoons and a fox or coyote. They are being kept strictly in their coops and enclosed run areas now. They do not like this and tend to start pecking at one another. I add different things to the coop hoping to distract them from this behavior.
When I was in Denver, Colorado, I went to the Denver Zoo with some friends. They had an exhibit called DINOS! Live at Denver Zoo . They have 21 life-size animatronic dinosaurs. They were very cool. Two caught my eye due to their bird like qualities.
First was the Citipati (pg 5)
It stood about 5-6 feet tall and were very protective of their nests. If you click the name, it will take you to the pdf with facts about the dinosaurs in the exhibit. I put the page number by the name. The Citipati photo in the pdf even shows a chicken for comparison. If we had a few of these, I don’t think we would have the predator problems. 😉
The other feathered dinosaur was the Utahraptor (pg 8). It was huge! It was about 23 feet long and weighed about 500 pounds. It had feathers, long sickle like claws and hunted in packs. Scientists think they were warm blooded and protective of its eggs. I would rather not have one of these around. We might be dinner, as they were carnivores. Yikes!
Hello,
On my visit to Colorado, I had the pleasure of visiting the Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs. It was a wonderful day of hiking, spending time with great friends, taking photos and enjoying nature. I will start with the beautiful red rocks the park is known for. This is a view from the visitors center looking out towards the park. The visitors center has wonderful exhibits about the park, the rock formations, flora and fauna and the history of the area.
Starting our exploration of the park on the Perkins Central garden Trail.
The scenery was breathtaking and this was just the first trail we explored. There were signs for rock climbing posted throughout the park, but did not see anyone climbing that day. This are also had another formation they simply call White Rock, but that is for another day. 🙂
The first day in Colorado we went to Garden of the Gods. After a morning of hiking and photos, we stopped for lunch at the Colorado Mountain Brewery.
The atmosphere is much like a sports bar with sports playing on the big screens above the bar, tables scatter throughout the pub, some areas with more intimate seating and outdoor seating as well. They have a nice selection of beer and food. I chose a stout from their brewery called Monumental Stout. The description had me at coffee, as one of my favorite seasonal beers back home is a Coffee Stout.
From their website:
Sounds good, right. It was! At first sip,there was a strong roasted coffee taste (slightly bitter),but had a nice smooth finish.
I also tried one of their Colorado Mountain Brewery specialties – Bison Poppers. These were jalapeños stuffed with ground buffalo and cream cheese. Then it is wrapped in a thin pastry dough and dipped in a batter their menu says is their Ole ’59er Amber Ale Batter and fried. It was so good! Not too spicy, and had a wonderful crispy texture. The sauce was slightly sweet and complemented the mild spiciness of the jalapeños.
Unfortunately we will not be able to go back and try more from their menu. If we venture to Colorado Springs again, I would definitely go back.
Off to Colorado. 😀
Yesterday I posted an update on the new fall chickens we are raising and that we lost one to a predator. Hungry wildlife finds all the places we miss when critter proofing a coop. I reinforced the area around the mobile coop with heavy paving blocks and rocks. The larger coop is more protected and I will be relieved when they are big enough to live with the older hens.
I set up our game camera last night and checked on them periodically through the night too. I wasn’t surprised to see a raccoon in the first clip. I knew from the holes dug to get in the coop from the night before that it was something with small paws and strong., but I really thought it was a opossum. The second video confirms my suspicions. You can see the opossum walking on the other side of the coop.
It appears about 3 seconds into the video below.
It appears that the reinforcing worked. The young chickens have yet o learn to go into the top area and roost. I am not sure why. I see from the videos that I have a couple of areas that I need to work on today, just in case.
We have several varieties of thistle growing in our area. The main one is Texas Thistle Cirsium texanum (of course 😉 )
Bumblebees work the flowers when they mature.
Thistle seed
Good morning,
Most farm stores sell day old chicks in the spring. It takes about five months to reach laying age, so if we buy in March, we can expect eggs starting late September. It is still cool here in March and the need to shelter the chicks and keep them warm is crucial even without us reaching freezing temperatures.
In the last few years, one of our farm stores has started carrying chicks in the late summer. It wasn’t until this year that we decided to give it a try. We bought six chicks, three golden sex links and three red sex links.
This is what the chicks are sent home in.
Arriving at their new home
We had their home ready, a stock tank with cedar shavings, water, chick feed and a warming light.
They seemed to like exploring their new home and would all run from one end to the other.
We knew we would have to rearrange the food and water as they grew. We also found that being summer, we did not need as much of a heat source to keep them comfortable. The chicks will let you know if they are too cold or too warm from where they go in relation to the heat source.
We have cats. So we needed a good cat proof top. We had an old Ikea frame we have kept for years (we keep everything it seems, never know when it will come in handy, and it did) It fit the top of the tank perfectly. My husband added some stops to keep it from sliding and hardware cloth. Since it is not very cool, we can set the heat lamp on one end on the wire.
One of our cats is fascinated with the chicks. They didn’t seem to be afraid of him.
Settled in for Cat TV.
Here they are at four days.
So far, I think I am enjoying the fall chicks more than the spring. Our temperatures are still hot in August and do not cool until late October and sometimes later. These girls are growing fast and will move into the small mobile coop soon.
Updates to follow. 🙂
Good morning
Overcast and rainy here today. Great morning for curling up in a comfy chair with a cup of coffee and a good book. 🙂
This plant grew along a privacy fence in a house we used to live in a few years ago. When we moved it was a very spindly vine looking plant that had pink blooms in the spring. We went by the house today and the little vine is actually a very tall shrub. It have lovely black seed pods dangling throughout the branches.
I took some photos and decided it was time to identify what exactly this vine turned shrub is, It turns out it is a shrub called Eve’s Necklace or Texas Sophora – Styphnolobium affine
From Wildflower.org plant database:
Eves necklace, a 15-30 ft., spineless shrub or tree, bears light-green, graceful leaflets and fragrant, pink, wisteria-like blooms. A tall shrub or small tree with thin, scaly, reddish brown bark on older wood and with smooth twigs. On limestone slopes, in valley bottoms, and on soils underlain with limestone in upland situations. Seeds reputed to be poisonous. Leaves divided into 6 to 8 pairs of leaflets and a terminal one on an axis up to 9 inches long, leaflets elliptic to oval, averaging an inch long, with a rounded, indented, or pointed tip, smooth margins, and a rounded or tapered base. Flowers fragrant, white tinged with rose, 1/2 inch long, arranged along axes up to 6 inches long, appearing in March and April. Fruit a long, rounded pod, constricted between the seeds, often with only 1 or a few seeds, the swollen part of the pod black, and the constrictions covered with gray hairs.
Sophora is from the Arabic name of a tree with pea-shaped flowers.
Coffee and Captured Moments 