I have been monitoring the boxes closely for the last few weeks. Last week I noticed the first egg in the box. And each day after there was one more shiny blue egg inside the nest! There are now a total of five eggs in there. Yeah!!!! These two parents to be were flighty and I could not get such good pics of them together.
Then I moved to another nest box location on our property and saw that the horses needed a glamor shot too. Here's Gemma, she turned five in March. I measured her yesterday for fun. She is a touch under 17 hands. That's huge by the way. A hand is 4 inches so you can do the math cause I can't in my head. What's math??
Then Sharpie and Max were alert and looking for their cameo. Max just came home from vacation at a friends place for the winter. He is the one on the left. I call him Sharpies "Mini-Me." He is a little guy, only 14.3 hands tall, and turned 6 on May 5th. Old man Sharpie turned 13 in March.
But back to business with the love birds here...
These are tree swallows swarming to take this nest box. There were five little bombers swooping and diving at each other over this box site.
But this pair were the apparent victors for the moment.
Mr. Swallow says, "Yo babe, you're kinda cute.... Uhhhhhhh.... Wanna shack up?
Mrs. Swallow says, "Well let me think about it."
Mrs Swallow states, "First I need to check out these here accommodations!"
The birds took off in a wild free for all after I stood up. I was stalking them from behind a fruit tree in our orchard. I investigated the box to see if they had begun any nest making. BUT all I found was a box full of pincher bugs!!! Yuck. I brushed the vermin out and hope that makes the swallow apartment suitable for use.
And on another note, I have several days of paying field work for botany this week and will be sparse in bloggy visits. :(
But finally some work is coming in and I have to take it! I am so going to do the happy dance when paychecks start coming again.
I hope everybody has a great week!
.JPG)
20 comments:
I love those birds and your horses look so glossy and beautiful!
When I was a kid I lived in a house that had lots of those pincher bugs. They would be on the wall by my bed! EWWWWW! I hate those icky bugs!
WOW! Congratulations on getting work! Money money money! Botanists LOVE green!!!
Your horses sure are pretty! Your whole place looks like a wonderland to me...
Have fun working!
Love the nest shot.
And the bird convo, I do that too!
Darling love birds! And I will only forgive you for the sparse bloggy visits if you post a video of your happy dance!
lol...great pictures!
Don't you just adore the happy sounds of the swallows? I could listen to them chatter all day long....
We have bluebirds too. The Western ones are soooo much brighter than the Eastern ones.
Once again amazing pictures. Congrats on the job.
Pricilla-I love hearing the swallows chirp and squeak and make all their clicking sounds while they soar back and forth and circle the pastures. They are quite loud and one would not think that such little birds could make such a symphony.
I think the blue of the eggs is one of the prettiest colors ever. It makes me want to redo my bedroom. Look at that--your a source of inspiration for decorating too ;)
The little blue eggs just look so cute... do they cuddle? ;)
Congrats on the work - the paycheck will certainly be nice!
Good Grief! Do you need a ladder to get on Gemma! We've got a ton of blue birds, and I'm thinking we need to put out some boxes for them to make their happy little homes in. hehe
Birds aren't my thing, but great pictures! Love the horses though. :) It's been a while, what breed are they? I keep wanting to say Morgan or Saddlebred, but think I'm wrong. :)
I love bluebirds so much. We are fortunate enough to have them as well.
Hi All,
Sara-Gemma is a Dutch Warmblood, Max is Thoroughbred/Arab and Sharpie is a Thoroughbred. But they are basically warmbloods. :)
MsSnarky Pants-Yep, Gemma is tall. But I am six foot tall and I do use a mounting block.
So where will I stay when I come to visit. Because it looks like to me you have some horses that need to be ridden...or would htat be rode? Anyway, I need to be schooled on nature and what better wayt to do that then horseback!
Those eggs look beautiful. Bluebirds have been driving me crazy lately. because I can't get a clear picture of any of them. I love seeing them so much, but chasing them like an idiot is not fun.
what wonderful captures. all the best in your new undertaking. :)
Loved your horse photos. Gemma is big and beautiful!
Congrats on your job.
What I want to know is, what kind of camera are you using? The motion pictures it takes are unbelievable.
Alexandra-I have a Nikon D50 and use a low caliber telephoto lens. I use the automatic settings most of the time and just keep shooting. Sometimes I use action settings. I delete a lot of frames that are not up to par. But I work on camera angle and background which makes a difference too in the final result. :)
Post a Comment