Meadowlark Fledgling

Two days ago I heard a young bird crying. I spotted the bird on the ground, and watched as it moved from the front yard to the back pasture and back screaming its head off. After a few hours I decided that mom was not around, and was made certain of this fact when the fledgling came running up to me with its mouth open (it even ran up the the dog asking for a meal). My heart strings were tugged hard enough, and soon the bird and I were off to the vet clinic where I used to work to get a baby bird powder. The dog came with us and was, as usual, very well behaved leaving the bird alone.

I got a small cage and the food and headed back home. The bird did well all day, although it does not like the powdered diet. I tucked him into my veggie garden for the night and went to bed. The next morning he came peeping up to me when I went outside. I fed and watered the little thing, and then went about my day staining the house. A few hours later I looked behind me to see the dog with the bird in its mouth.

Devastated, I rushed over to find a very sad looking bird and a very guilty dog. The bird was alive, and after a bit of debate and a lot of tears I decided that I had seen birds look worse and do fine so I decided to give the bird until the end of the day to perk up. Lots of TLC later and the baby bird was eating grasshoppers that had been caught, de-legged, and finger fed by me. The bird was allowed to sleep in the house in his cage, which I outfitted with a handmade nest, and woke up chipper and chirping to be fed at 7am.

I was reluctant to write about the baby, incase it did not survive being mauled by the dog, but I feel confident today that he will make it to adulthood just fine.

So a little introduction is in order.















This is the little guy (or girl). It is a meadowlark fledgling not a nestling. The difference between the two life stages can be determined by whether or not the bird can perch, which this kiddo can (although he prefers not to). He eats more than a teenage football team after practice- about three 1-1.5 inch grasshoppers every 20-30 min plus all the house-flies we can kill (Michael has been making a pile for me every few hours). Luckily there is no shortage of hoppers around here these days so I don't have to try very hard to catch him some food. He can fly down from a tree, but not up, and he likes to hop around in the grass. He is starting to groom and has his baby chirp plus a modified chirp that he does if he is really riled up.
























Anyways, always fun on the farm.

Grasshopper Plague of 2011

Its official. We have been suffering from ridiculous numbers of grasshoppers for the entire summer, and finally yesterday the hoppers made the local news.

Now I am not talking just a few hoppers. I am talking roughly 20 per foot or MORE around most of our 5 acres. Its crazy. Our garden is completely destroyed- only tomatoes are left now, and they are eying those too. I have sprayed three times and I am thinking I might need to spray again tonight or tomorrow.

Maybe we can start harvesting the hoppers and frying them up. Make hopper candy or something useful...

Fun pictures of the week

Two of our six chickens eating scratch on their porch.

Cody hanging out under the chicken porch. What a good pooch.

All of the chickens enjoying their afternoon treat!

New facade on the chicken coop. Lookin' good.

Pretty egg colors.

Type A chickens lay eggs in a very organized manner. I love it!

Toads

Ever since I moved here I have enjoyed seeing the toads on the front porch in the summer. Growing up I had never encountered a toad, so the first time I saw one was back in 2006 when I came to live at our farm. Ever since I have enjoyed holding the toads and feeding them bugs.

This year the toad population exploded (right alongside the grasshopper population), and with it came a new found obsession for these fun creatures. So, naturally, I have been doing some research, and have learned quite a bit about our little toad friends. We have a knot of Bufo woodhousii whos' common name is the Western Woodhouse's Toad (a knot is a group of toads). This spp. of toad can get around 4-5 inches long and really fat (maybe I will weigh my fattest female and let you know just how fat).

While surfing the web researching various subjects I thought, 'wouldn't it be fun to name our farm?!?'. This has resulted in many funny name suggestions back and forth between the family members, but finally we decided on the name Singing Toad Farm. It is kind of fun to have a farm with a name; it seems more official.

What we know about our toads:

Our toads first meal when they migrate to our house is moths. Spring time in Colorado brings with it lots and lots of moths or 'millers' as well call them here. Many times in the evening I have turned on the porch light, and when the toads and millers gather on the porch I catch and feed millers to the toads. Now that the millers have gone, the toads mainly feast on grasshoppers and other insects. The toads practically litter my front vegetable garden, which I am currently outfitting with around a dozen toad houses to give the guys and gals a reason to come back next year- not that they haven't come back the last five years on their own. But the front garden is not the only area blessed with toads. This season I have seen many toads hopping around the driveway and barn after dark.

This is the first year that I have seen toadlets, which has been a lot of fun. I found them while moving objects that they had been sleeping under, such as a plie of wood on our porch and a inflated raft in our pasture. The ones that I have seen are about the size of a quarter and are just so darn cute. We really have no idea where our toads go in the winter. I know that they burrow and hibernate, but I dont know if they stay here on the farm, or migrate back to be near the pond during the early spring when they spawn in an unknown body of water. Next spring I plan on looking for toad spawn in the water around here (we live in the high desert so I am surprised that the toads can find any water to lay eggs in because outside of the ditch which only has water in it a few days a week there are very few ponds anywhere near our house.)

Here are some picture of the toads for your enjoyment.