What did you do today?

[Nanno]

I'm jealous Taffy! We FINALLY had about eight inches last Thursday and it was sticking around pretty good, but then last night a furious warm wind swept through and this morning it was all gone to mud. The wind is still howling and by this afternoon I think the ground will already be mostly dry.

[Charlie Horse]

Had a scare today. Wanted the goats to follow me around a cattle guard (the 2 foot deep "I really am not kidding, I want to break your leg" type) but all three tried to cross it. Nobody made it. No legs broken though-- Just momentary limping. I'm going to have to talk to the county about that. There's no way to get a horse past it-- Just a small foot wide path on the side that some poor cowboy dropped in to recently judging by the tracks in the snow. I blame myself for not grabbing leashes and taking charge. They thought they could make it because snow had bridged the gaps.

[Taffy]

I sure am happy to hear they all survived that without broken legs! Scary!

[MosesBrowning]

Glad nobody was injured, CharlieHorse! Those can be awful. We have one that's about 3' wide right near the house, & my guys play on & around it constantly, & are now jumping it instead of tip-toeing across the bars. The horses won't even go near it, & look at the goats like they're crazy when they do.

[Nanno]

Yikes! I'm glad everyone was ok. Snowy cattle guards are pretty dangerous. They're usually ok to cross when they're dry, but those bars get awfully slippery in ice and snow. Cuzco figured out how to walk across on the support beams. Those are flat and usually about 4-5 inches wide. And here I thought Cuzco was dumb enough to jump across so we could get an action video...

 

(Yeah, who's really the stupid one??)

[Nanno]

We had horrifying winds Sunday night through Monday and lost power from 3:00 yesterday afternoon until 9:00 this morning. The wind is driving again today and hopefully won't knock our power out once more. We're fortunate we have no damage (so far). Several people in Colorado City lost their roofs, and I don't mean just the shingles. Whole entire roofs came off some of the houses. Winds down there were clocked at around 100 mph. I'm not sure how strong the winds were up here because Phil's weather station blew off the roof. We're having a lot of wind lately. I'd like to have snow instead, please.

[Taffy]

This has nothing to do with goats but I wanted to share what happened yesterday.  I'm a master falconer.  I don't currently have a raptor I am hunting with.  My Harris' Hawk died of natural causes at age 19 a couple years ago.  However - raptors are a passion of mine.

Last week when I saw a sharp-shinned hawk catch a kestrel I thought I’d never see any nature event like that again.  It was a once in a lifetime (thank goodness!) happening.  A kestrel was my first falconry bird and I have a soft spot for them so it was hard to see the sharpie with that gorgeous male kestrel.

Yesterday morning I saw something even more unbelievable.

An immature Cooper’s hawk caught one of the Eurasian Collared Doves and landed with it just outside our back yard fence. (first photo).  I’m ALWAYS happy to see them get caught.  They’ve chased out the Mourning Doves from our area and are an invasive species.

The Coopers flew into one of the pine trees just outside of the fence and began plucking the dove.  Then it flew to the ground below the pine to more easily pluck and eat it.

This is the same pine tree where I throw sunflower seeds under for the quail and pheasants.  They like to eat where they are more protected.

I was watching the Cooper enjoy its meal when a rooster pheasant came cautiously walking toward the sunflower seed pile!  It was obvious he knew the Coopers was there.  The Coopers just kept eating the dove and the pheasant began eating sunflower seeds.  They were only about 3’ apart! (photo 2 arrow points to Coopers).

It was amazing to watch predator and prey in such close proximity minding their own business but very aware of each other.

Then one of my squirrels came over to the pine!  It cautiously jumped into the branches above the Cooper and then started jumping from branch to branch harassing the Coopers!  The Cooper’s flared its wings when the squirrel got too close and moved up against the tree trunk to a more secluded location taking the dove with it.

The squirrel then jumped to the ground, went over to the sunflower seeds and began eating near the pheasant!  (photo 3 with arrows to Coopers and squirrel).

I wish I was a filmmaker and could have filmed all of this in high quality.  It was truly amazing to see.

The wildlife knew this storm was coming and they were trying, at all cost, to feed up before it hit.

It snowed all day yesterday, all night and was still snowing until 15 minutes ago.  The geese are in and have found the remnants of the 200# of corn we put out yesterday under the snow.  There isn’t much left.  We have more bags of corn in the back of my truck but the snow is now so deep we’ll have to use the tractor to get into the field to put it out.

I look at the attached photos and still cannot believe I saw something so amazing happen yesterday.


  breakfast.jpg (Size: 75.29 KB / Downloads: 48)

   


  Trio.jpg (Size: 53.89 KB / Downloads: 49)

[DownUnder Gal]

Wow, that would have been something to see - just like a David Attenborough documentary. Very interesting to hear that you are a master falconer. I must read up on it because I don't know much about it but am intrigued. Do you have any pics?

[Charlie Horse]

How can you even tell the difference between a sharp-shinned and a cooper's hawk? Other than size.

I had a very active bird feeder going until a cooper's hawk came around. One day it dove over the house (2 stories) and caught a black headed finch, but not quite. The finch escaped and dove down behind a trampoline. I wasn't really to pleased with the cooper ruining my bird feeder fun and I went over and picked up the bird. It died in my hands a minute later. The hawk was out there watching me with hateful eyes. I tossed the bird's body out in the snow and sure enough the hawk came and got it. I think there was a lot more going on in that bird's head than in most animals. He understood the situation. In the end I weened the finches off my feeder because it was making it way too easy for the raptors (Kestrels have nested in a missing soffet panel for 20 years at the house).

I'm considering the falconing hobby. I currently have two parrots sitting on me while I type. I don't think they'd be friends. But you would not believe the amazing view and giant fields across the street from my new house. Perfect for falcons!

Here's a pic of me and some kind of eagle in Mongolia about 12 years back. That was not a happy bird, I don't think. He's like the horses that work on beaches for tourists hehe. Very authentic though! His breath smelled like rotten meat-- Who knows what he was eating.

[DownUnder Gal]

Impressive!