Trimmer mower

On July 6, 2020 By CarynIn Wildlife

We have a meadow on the side of the house, in front of the chicken coop. I’ve been seeding wildflowers there since we moved in, and when the blooms are done and the seeds have formed I trim down the whole meadow with a string trimmer. It usually takes over two hours and two tanks of gas before I’ve had enough! This year we invested in a trimmer mower, which has thick replaceable plastic “string” like a trimmer, but is mounted on three wheels and pushed like a mower. The trimmer mower and I are now friends. It does a much neater job on the meadow than I did swinging a trimmer back and forth, and I ran out of gas before it did. I was also able to get more done in those two hours.

I did leave some of the Standing Cypress near the road so it will reseed, and I found an ironweed, which I mowed around because I haven’t seen one before and it had pretty purple blooms. I am hoping that it will also reseed.

Hackberry Emperor butterfly landed on my elbow

We have a lovely patch of buffalo grass happily spreading near the coop. In order to keep it from dying I took a rake to the trimmings to keep them from matting up and killing the roots. A little brownsnake kept me company.

I can see five grasshoppers in this shrub

When any kind of yard work is going on, my flock usually hides in the coop. But one brave hen ventured out and discovered that all sorts of tasty things jumped into the runs to escape the mower. I saw her chasing a snake and at least a couple grasshoppers!

Scenes from the trail cam

On June 16, 2020June 11, 2020 By CarynIn Wildlife

It has been awhile since I’ve posted trail cam photos. Mostly they have been blurry pictures of raccoons, opossums, armadillos, cats, and the occasional bird. After some adjustment of the camera position, I am now getting less blurry snaps. Mostly.

Walking starfish? Oh wait, no, two racoons

Shh, he’s hiding

On June 6, 2020May 30, 2020 By CarynIn Wildlife

We started up a fire in the fire pit, and when I was removing the grass spider webs I found a snake. Not something I expect to find hiding under a sheet of web! He was not caught, but when I uncovered him, he slithered off, under the pot (we use an old cast iron cooking pot as a fire pit). I was afraid he was going to cook himself under there, but my eldest spotted him later hiding just outside the hottest part of the rock.

As the fire died down, we watched the grass spiders and Texas brown snake. Both are beneficial and pose no risk to humans, so they stay!

This is a very busy photo

On June 4, 2020June 3, 2020 By CarynIn Flora, Wildlife

On a walk at a local park, I stopped to take a picture of thistles. I love the look of these thistles! The leaves are silvery, and I like the tassel; yes they are prickly, but at a distance that has its own kind of charm. I ran the photo through the iNaturalist app to figure out what kind of creature was sipping nectar, and it suggested thistle, and two very different insects. Huh? Then I looked closer and there are two insects in the picture! The bee fly on the bloom to the right, and the back end of a flower scarab in the bloom on the left. I have not documented either creature, so it is quite the exciting picture!

I have finally added an “About Me” page, accessible from the menu on my page ofchickensandcraft.home.blog. It rather highlights my fractured nature, but if you have been reading my posts for any length of time, you have probably picked up that I am easily distracted and try many things!

Egg thief?

On June 2, 2020 By CarynIn Wildlife

Well, attempted egg thievery. I went out to check the chickens around noon and found a 4 foot long Western Rat Snake in a nest trying to eat an egg. I ran back to the house to get my phone, turned on the video, with light, and she (?) still didn’t care I was there. The egg was too big, though. I called for my eldest to bring the snake grabber (yes, I went into the house for my phone and not the grabber), and we gently removed the snake from the nest and relocated it outside the coop.

I think the snake slithered in the coop door during the day. I was afraid of squishing bits with the grabber and dropped it a couple times and it didn’t seem to have a bolt hole. But that may be another factor in our decreased egg collection. Although, honestly, a few eggs is a good salary for something that keeps rats and mice away. This guy will need to grow a bit before it can eat the eggs. Maybe it was stealing the 44g eggs and couldn’t take the 46g.

Critters and Craft

Category: Wildlife