Housing Boom

This sturdy barn swallow nest is just across the aisle from the robins below

There is a large and rapidly-growing housing development to our east. You can see the cookie-cutter houses from the horse pasture and the McDonald's sign from everywhere. Amish are moving in and subdividing all around us, and there's a racetrack up to our west. We frequently wonder how long this place will stay as farm land after we are gone. Probably not long.

 However, the biggest housing boom seems to be going on right here on the farm.

Last night Becky nearly stepped on a litter of sylvilagus floridanus that were out for their first perambulation of the lawn....just in time for a nibble in the garden, I'll bet. Those newly sprouted peas and green beans...Yum!

And grey fox pups in the driveway....who probably look at the bunnies with that same thought in mind.

Right inside the heifer barn door

The crows up in the hedgerow fledged, but they still defend the area where the nest is. Ditto robins in the heifer barn, robins in front of the house, robins in the lane, robins, robins everywhere. And the song sparrows near the old corn crib have a newly-fledged brood following them around. They get so anxious and scold if we walk near.

At least two grackle nests, one in the blue spruce, one in the cedar by the porch. Barn swallows in the barn...the list goes on. Phoebes in the front yard. Starling nests stuffed everywhere. Something with a big, fat, ball of grass up in the eaves of the heifer barn. Never seen anything quite like that before. Red-bellied woodpeckers up in the cow lane. Many others, obviously nesting, but good at hiding their housing sites. We hear their songs though....

We haven't seen any fawns yet, but I'll bet they are out there. We are overrun by deer near the buildings...all the poaching pressure up in back has them literally right on the doorstep and a herd sleeping in the barnyard. Turkeys are nesting somewhere right behind the house too....we see them every day when they come out...Poults any day now I suspect.

While enduring the sterile wasteland that is winter in the freezing Northeast, it is hard to even remember that all this activity takes place during our short summer months. However, as June swings into Dairy Month and the cows revel in lush green grass, we are reminded hourly how very fertile the land is...growing everything that is needed for the birds and animals that live here...and hopefully some for us as well.

All grown up and flown already. Second brood soon, I'll bet.