Here, Chick, Chick, Chick

Each morning we go out and open the nesting boxes in the hen house.  The chickens are clucking and scratching and waiting for us.  When you have an empty nest, like we do, I guess it is somewhat fulfilling knowing that someone is still depending on you to feed them.  The feed room in the barn contains all sorts of feeds and minerals.  We have sweet feed, alfalfa, rough rice, and hen scratch.  

We mix up a half a gallon of rough rice and a half a gallon of  hen scratch and mix it up nicely.  Walking outside, we call, "Here, chick, chick, chick."  The hens fall over themselves to come to us.  They can't wait.  We take cupfuls and scatter it out in the barnyard.  The barnyard is mostly mud now - just an absolute mess.  But the fat hens don't seem to mind scratching through the mud to uncover a morsel of cracked corn, a grain of milo, some oats, wheat and millet, and plenty of locally grown rice.

The hens aren't the only fowl attracted to this free feast festivity.  Wild birds have gotten to where they appreciate the free meal.  In the photo below on the right middle, you can see another bird that isn't a chicken partaking.

Here are six more of the same, sampling the hen scratch.  These are "Mexican Doves" or Inca doves.  They are protected and may not be harvested like the Mourning Doves, Ring-necked doves or White-winged doves that are prevalent in our state.  These Mexican doves weren't common when I was growing up.  It was mainly Mourning Doves that were around.  They are called Mourning doves due to the sad, mournful call that they give.

In high school we would hunt doves south of town in soybean fields.  We would shoot them with 12 gauge shotguns and bring home a bag full of them.  I can recall plucking them and cleaning them to cook.  Doves are a delicious meal.  I remember one time we had cleaned them all.  I had friends over and we had browned our doves and were making a roux to make a nice dove gumbo.

My great Aunt Myra was in from South Dakota visiting on that fateful day.  She walked into the house and exclaimed, "What is that wonderful smell?"  The hunters proudly exclaimed, "We're making a dove gumbo!  You want some?"  Aunt Myra burst into tears.  We had no idea why.  We learned that Aunt Myra was active in the South Dakota Save the Dove Foundation.  My Dad had the unenviable task of comforting Aunt Myra and letting her know that doves were plentiful, a nuisance really in our area, and harvesting a few for a gumbo was a noble undertaking.

Birds of a Feather Flock Together

We have a couple of palm trees in our backyard that have grown like crazy. Apparently, they like the location that we planted them in.  I only wish that they were the type of tree that produced something to eat.  What they do produce is a bunch of fronds that turn brown and die.  The fronds have large thorns on them that you have to be real careful when you carry them or they will stick you. (Experience speaking)

While nice to look at, they really don't provide anything of benefit.  Or so I thought...

Flocking Together

They provide an excellent place for birds to build a nest.  The other day I got out an extended wooden pole saw similar to the one in the photo below and began to cut off the dead fronds.  It won't be long before I'll have to get a ladder to perform this task as the trees keep growing and growing.

While I was cutting, I noticed a bird flying around.  As I looked closer, I identified the bird to be what we call a Mexican Dove, but I think the correct name is the Common Ground Dove.  They are much smaller than the Mourning Dove or the Ring-Necked Dove that are also prevalent around here. A closer examination showed that the dove had two little ones in a nest she had built in a cozy place where I had previously cut a dead palm frond off.  It created a perfect protected indentation to build a nest.  If you look closely at the picture above just a hair above the center, you can see two birds sitting in their nest watching me.  Their mom was not to happy!

Image Credit

I watched the birds for about a week.  They grew very quickly.  Before I knew it they were testing their wings out and flying in short hops out on the palm fronds.  In fact you can see one sitting on the frond after a test flight.  He's right in the center of the photo below.

One Dove out of the nest and on the frond

And then the next day, as we watched them, they both flew off into a neighboring pecan tree and we haven't seen them back.  Benjamin likes to shoot doves with his pellet gun.  We have a few doves in the freezer right now.  After watching these grow up, he said he'd be a little hesitant about shooting any more around the house, but I assured him that there are tons of doves.

It is that time of year when all the birds are hatching.  If you walk around the yard, you see pieces of egg shell in the grass, signalling that another bird has hatched.  If you look closely, sometimes you'll see little birds that try to fly before they are ready and end up on the ground.  This young bird below is one of those.  He's a baby Mockingbird, I think, and I saw him in some Indian Hawthorn as I was mowing. When I got Benjamin to show him the bird, the little fellow was gone.  I don't know if his mom somehow rescued him or if he fell prey to the cats that patrol the area.

Mockingbirds are appropriately named.  The other morning as I walked to work, I saw one mockingbird sitting on the top of a light pole and this bird went through 7 or 8 different songs of different birds, mimicking their song like an Elvis impersonator.  It was almost as if he was showing off.  He wasn't finished with his song list either, but I had to go inside.

I haven't talked about Penelope, our India Blue pea hen lately.  She has a great personality and a regal head dress that she wears with pride as she struts around. The old girl is still around and like clockwork everyday, she flies into the yard and then later on flies up into the very top of a tree to roost for the night.  The poor girl needs a mate.  She had her feathers all fanned out and ended up laying 5 eggs on top of the barn that she sat on, but they are not fertile since we don't have a peacock and they didn't hatch.  

Penelope, the (lonely) Peahen

I really need to remedy that.  A mate for Penelope would be cool to have around:

Image Credit

Oh, but the price is sort of prohibitive!  On Murray McMurray Hatchery, they sell an assortment of 8 peafowl for $392.40!  That's almost $50 per bird.  I'm going to check around locally and see if anyone has a peacock for sale at a better price.