Starlings and Cherries

I've written a blog about a starling male that throws in various farm animal sounds when he's singing. He and his mate have a nest in the wall of my barn and they raise two broods each season, and they've done this for years. It amazes me when the male starling throws in the sounds of sheep, rooster, crickets, and even the meow of a cat to his melodic sounds for his admiring mate!

He and his mate have their second brood just about ready to "fly the coop". It's been a delight to hear their tiny nearly inaudible peeps after newly hatching, and hearing the peeps grow stonger everyday to where they become loud chirps. When my feet it the floorboards of the old barn, they hear it and chirp loudly thinking hungrily that a parent has landed with a morsel. Ever hungry and ever demanding, their parents tirelessly and with an amazing drive, bring their babies a variety of food. I can sit in the shade of a nearby oak and watch them fly in with a meal sometimes every few minutes.

They're well fed youngsters, and so quickly they grow. The parents catch all kinds of insects, and bring in a variety of seasonal fruit as well, a very well balanced meal. One day, while we were haying the pasture and moving in the bales into the barn, I watched the parents find and bring in cherry after cherry for their youngsters. I was even more amazed that the parents had partially mashed them prior to feeding, for easy eating and digestion, and I don't know for certain but I also think each one is "seeded".

The youngsters are nearly fledglings, thanks to their parents constant feeding and good care. Even with the truck backed up to the barn and me standing up on the top of the bales, they were steadfast and undaunted by me. Their babies need to be fed, and they were going to feed them regardless. They chirped loudly at us, with the intended meal in their beaks and sat on the eve watching, somewhat agitated... but after a while, continued their mission to feed the youngsters. It was certainly a sight, these pretty irridescent black little birds, carrying bright red cherries glowing in the afternoon sunlight. The marvels of nature...

Simple things.

Sonya
www.wildwindart.com

Waitin' on the Storm

We had several days of thunderstorms. On the first day, I just couldn't sit still a moment longer while the storm rolled in. I'd watched it on my trusty radar, but it was time to go out and greet it. Armed with camera in hand, I went on to the northeast side of my old barn where the open stall faces north and east.

What better place to wait on a thunderstorm then outside with the horses? At rest in their large corner open sided stall, all three greeted me with soft nickers. After their friendly greetings subsided, they resumed their previous activities. Some were quietly snoozing, or quietly interacting with the movement of a head, cock of an ear, or nuzzled with me or my son. The youngest who always seems to be looking for food, even at rest habitually gently lipping at some remnent morsels left over from their morning meal. We sat with them and watched their peaceful behaviors, and listened to the distant rolling thunder near. Horses, for me fill just about every sense, and I enjoy teaching that to my children. So we sat there quietly and learned.

Reno's the baby of the band, and into everything...she'd ride a'top of me if she could. She's greenbroke, but she packs a saddle like a champ and is always the first to greet me at the gate when she hears the "clanging" of the halter & leadrope. Like a big dog, she's always curious and wants to follow us around to see what we're doing and how her big personality and self can fit into it and be part of our activity. She happily interacted with us when we waited on the storm, whether it was licking the floorboards of the barn, or steaming my camera lens as I tried taking pictures.

When people pay attention to the little "finite" things in their life, a whole new world of beauty unfolds before them. Sometimes one just needs to "sit still and listen".

Simple pleasures.

~Sonya

http://www.wildwindart.com/

Lightning Storm~ Frankenstein and Noodles

Awesome and humbling storm last night, it even made my computer crash! I was out with the horses until a "net" of lightning was over head. Then retreated (ok, ran like lightning, haha) to safety and watched it out the windows as well as on the computer weather radar- the National Weather Service issued a severe thunderstorm warning bulletin for our area with damaging winds.

So the computer crashed, and reviving it was more like a Frankenstein scene... you could just see me on here like mad... hair in all directions... studying the echo tops of the cells on radar, checking out lightning strikes, and intensity signatures, and facebooking, blogging, myspacing all at the same time, while I'm running out to the windows watching bolts searing the air, managing kids, consoling our shaken dog who belly-crawled into the house (not an indoor dog)... This is while speghetti's boiling on the stove... and answering the phone. Something just had to give.... Input & electrical overload, my meteorological "command center" shut down, screen went black. I sat there stairing blankly and in disbelief at the dead screen. But only momentarily...The computer revival was swift & like a Frankenstein scene... speghetti noodles were the only casualty. Storm's expected to be EVEN be better today!

What came of my speghetti? I am embarrassed to say that the speghetti noodles didn't get the recognition they deserved for their ultimate sacrifice...they're still in the pot soggy, collecting rainwater on the back deck! I only had a moment to put the burnt smoking pot outside! Really looking forward to what today brings!

Simple pleasures with a spark!

Sonya
http://www.wildwindart.com/

The Starling

I have no rooster on my little homestead but I hear one regularly. Next to my old barn is an oak tree that a silly little male starling sits in, singing to his heart's content, momentarily pausing to see who's walking below. Starling's songs are beautiful, and as I walk beneath the oaks branches, I'm stopped short when I hear a rooster cockadoodaldoo. When he does his rooster impersonation, it's somewhat quiet and strained, so it seems like it's far away, but it's direction comes to me from over my head. He goes back and resumes his beautiful melody, and then I laugh when I hear a "meow", and resumes his song once more. Over the days, I hear his songs and his farm animal interjections, including sheep sounds, and frogs.

We're entertained by this every year, and then he has two broods of babies inside the barn wall twice each year. Hopefully passing on his peculiarity.

Simple things.

Sonya
http://www.wildwindart.com/