Birds

Archived Posts from this Category

January 18, 2012

Wordless Wednesday

Posted by Morning Bray under Birds, Burros | Tags: burro, Gracie Belle, herding cranes, sandhill cranes |
[28] Comments

January 14, 2012

Saturday Stuff – In flight

Posted by Morning Bray under Birds, Saturday Parts & Stuff | Tags: Canada Goose |
[23] Comments

December 27, 2011

Looking back at 2011 – January and February

Posted by Morning Bray under Birds, Donkeys | Tags: 2011, birds, donkeys, Eurasian Collared-Dove, sandhill crane |
[13] Comments

A lot happened at Morning Bray Farm this year. When I sat down yesterday to reminisce by looking through blog posts, the magnitude of the changes here really hit me.

The blessing of Patrick came to us in March, followed by our beautiful Muscovy ducklings in April. Fergus left us in July, we adopted our BLM beauty Gracie Belle in August, and Buck arrived in October.

Whoa. It all happened so fast.

Last night, Don and I went through and picked our favorite blog photos/moments from 2011. We’ll share our picks this week. If you click on any of the photos, you’ll be taken to the original blog posts.

January 2011

The fabulous four:

Fergus was such a character:

He did an excellent James Cagney impersonation:

Sandhill crane:

February 2011

Our sleeping beauty:

Our first baby of 2011:

October 21, 2011

The cacophony is back

Posted by Morning Bray under Birds | Tags: birds, sandhill cranes |
[32] Comments

We’re excited. They’ve been returning in waves over the last few days.

The sandhill cranes are back.

I remember reading somewhere that they are one of the loudest, if not the loudest bird species.

Here’s what we’ve been listening to:

This is their unison call. Unison calls are produced by a pair of birds. This call, performed with the birds standing close to each other and in a synchronized duet, is a way of reinforcing the pair bond between a female and a male bird. It may also be used by a pair to threaten predators or other cranes.

August 1, 2011

On par with Octomom

Posted by Morning Bray under Birds | Tags: Gladys, guinea, guinea hen, keets, Octomom |
[25] Comments

Even though I only count 13 in this picture, we counted a total of 14 keets on Friday afternoon, which puts Gladys on par with Octomom.

We don’t know that she’s the same Gladys that got broody in our barn last fall, but this time, she hatched her babies.

I tend to think this is the same Gladys. She’s very attentive to her babies.

And protective. Just as she was to her nest.

Guinea keets are incredibly cute.

Gladys spent Friday night here with her babies. On Saturday, she returned to Mr. Gladys and the rest of her guinea family in our neighbor’s pasture.

Take good care of those babies, Gladys. We’re glad you were here. ♥

July 27, 2011

A group of woodpeckers has many collective nouns, including a “descent”, “drumming”, and “gatling” of woodpeckers.
As the smallest North American woodpecker, the Downy can drill cavities in dead trees or limbs that measure as little as 10 cm around. This means that it can live in a wider range of habitat than can larger woodpeckers.
Males tend to feed in the tops of trees on branches that are small in diameter, females feed midlevel and lower on larger diameter branches.
The Downy Woodpecker uses sources of food that larger woodpeckers cannot, such as the insect fauna on weed stems.