The American Kestrel is the smallest member of the falcon family, and the most adorable tiny killing machine. On a recent walk, I spotted this one flying up to the top of the light post with a prize. Luckily I had my good camera with me (because two days prior I didn’t, and saw the older buck. Sigh.)
And since he was glaring at me, it seemed appropriate to make him into a meme. It is a stretch, I know, but I couldn’t come up with a decent pun using “Kestrel”.
My eldest gets the credit for the words for this meme. I took the picture on a walk in town (once again the elder buck was elusive). One squirrel was the only photographic harvest on that venture. But I’ve been eagerly looking for more signs of spring!
Shortly after we moved in, we found that we had nine-banded armadillos living in the yard. Pretty sure you can’t get much more Texas than that. (You actually can, but it is a start.) In the last couple of weeks I’ve started to see signs of their passing again: small shallow holes dug in the ground as they look for tasty insects. Armadillos are insectivores, and so are good to have around. Now they also carry leprosy, so are not good to touch or handle.
The armadillo babies are absolutely adorable to watch, though. Here is a picture from last year of one of the four babies. Armadillo females give birth to identical quadruplets. Every time. I’m really hoping to see a new litter this summer!
And those protective shells must protect some vulture gold, because those unfortunate enough to have a fatal encounter with a car attract vultures quickly and in mass. The vultures clean out everything but the shell.
Another plus, they don’t eat chicken! Finally something in the yard that won’t be after our future birds!
Bobcats will also take out chickens. Our trail cam took this fuzzy picture last June (hey, his paws are in focus!). We haven’t seen signs of bobcat lately, but there is no doubting that they are in the area.
Since we moved into this house, we’ve known that we eventually want chickens. At our last house, we would put out bird feeders to attract wild birds to the windows (mostly for the edification of the inside cats, but to also entertain my kids as well). We did not put up feeders at the new house.
Wild birds can carry avian bird flu, and if you are raising chickens, I have read that one way to help keep your chickens healthy is to NOT attract wild birds. So no feeders. Now, we have a bit of wooded land, which is happy fun land for wild birds, as our trail cam reports, but we will take steps not to actually attract them to the house or around the coop. Our chicken feeders will be closed at night (which is good to keep out the rats and mice), and I’m considering getting an automatic feeder that only opens when the chickens step up to the plate. Wild birds are too light to activate the lever, and the design keeps the chickens from knocking too much out onto the ground.
Now the handsome guy above was doing a great cleanup job on a bit of rabbit. He really seems like he is eyeing the camera, huh?
We also have other wild bird patrols.
The outside cats also catch wild birds. In town I know people get riled up about the neighbor cat taking down their window entertainment, and I have to admit finding the bluebird of happiness dead on my front porch was a sad moment, but she is doing her job out here in the country. (I do love bluebirds, and it is sad that this is the first one I saw. It is nice that they are in the area. And the little hunter did get praised for her skills, because we are good cat minions.)
Critters and Craft 