Tuesday, July 16, 2013

Daisy

After the morning rain
Here is a flower that is common and that just about everyone knows; it is the daisy.  Every flower has a meaning and the daisy represents loyalty to love and commitment.

I remember as young children playing, we would take a daisy and pick the white petals off one at a time until they were all gone while repetitively saying, ''he loves me, he loves me not''. If we said ''he loves me'' on the last petal picked, we would crumble up all of the yellow center and throw it up in the air and then try to catch as many yellow seeds back in our hand.  Then, we'd count them and that is how many children we were going to have!!!!

Daisies are one of my favorite perennials that make me smile, and yes, the kid is still in me....accept now when I play this game, I can happily say ''he loves me, he loves me lots'' !!

This is a great flower to give to anybody that you truly care about.

Thursday, July 11, 2013

Downy Woodpecker.... part 2

After my post from yesterday, Downy Woodpecker, I just had to create a part 2!!

There was a lot of activity going on outside that immediately caught my attention.... I heard the sounds of distress from a little bird, but could not locate it immediately.  Then, I found him....
Baby male Downy Woodpecker
He managed to get himself lodged between two branches and could not get himself out....


I was able to gently lift him up with my fingers and he was able to re-position himself on the branch....I took a few photos and then he flew to a nearby tree.

This story doesn't end here!!  It wasn't until I put my photos on the computer that I noticed in one of the pictures that his left eye was closed.  It was like that in all of the photos.  (very visible in the first photo posted above and slightly in the one below) I then realized that something was wrong with his little eye.  Was it poked by a tree branch or a siblings beak in the nest?  Or could it be a birth defect?  I felt so bad because he was now gone from the tree where I initially helped him get ''unstuck''.  Then a few hours later.....


....There he was hanging onto the post above while his mother was feeding below!! I snapped this photo, then set my camera down and proceeded to walk closer to the baby to see if I could get a closer look at his eye!!  The mother flew to a nearby tree, and the baby didn't move.... I slowly raised my hand closer towards him and he still didn't move.  He made it very easy by allowing me to put him in my hand. (Maybe he remembered me helping him from earlier in the day.... )


Once he was comfortable in my hand, I took him into the house and began to take an even closer look.  Our two house cats, Philly and Misty and our Border Collie, Skye are getting used to our feathered friends coming into the house these days.  This was the second bird that needed help in less than a month!! Here is our Hummingbird Rescue !!  To make a long story short, I got out my homeopathy kit and wet a soft cloth with some colloidal silver and gently held it over his eye.  I massaged the area and in a few minutes, his eye began to open up!!!! I was excited and I am certain he was too!!  I put a drop or two of colloidal silver in some water and let him drink it.  Colloidal silver helped in this situation as I was able to clean the area and prevent possible infection in the eye.

His eye is open now and all cleaned up!!
Once confident that his eye was looking better, I gave him a little snack of peanut butter and another drink of water before releasing him outside with his family.  I put him back on the bird feeder and he looked around for a moment and then flew to this stump....

Baby (left) and Father re-united!!

 
How precious is this!!  The father feeding the baby moments after he was in my hand!!

I came to notice that there are at least 3 babies being taken care of by mom and dad... Two boys and a girl!! Here (see photo below) is the female baby now about a week older from this photo !!


Glad to see another happy ending and hopefully they all live long productive lives!! :-)

Wednesday, July 10, 2013

Downy Woodpecker


This was most likely the first outing for this little gal.... ''downy'' suits the name for her in this photo.... she was observing her father at the feeder and learning how she must soon begin fending for herself!!  There are all kinds of baby birds coming out of the nests at this time of year, exploring the new world around them!!  It gives us a full-time job (and a happy one at that) making sure all of the feeders are filled for our feathered friends.... 


Daddy at the suet showing baby how it is done!! The noticeable difference between the female and male Downy Woodpecker is the male has a red patch on the top of his head!!

Saturday, July 6, 2013

Oh Deer !!

Male White Tail Deer
This little fella came to visit us, and get a drink from the pond just before bedtime.  Our free ranged chickens and rooster became very vocal when the deer announced his presence, but after a few minutes and sharing the same space for awhile, they accepted him!!

 This buck is approximately 2 years old

He decided to take a stroll by the barn before heading out!!