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June 11, 2008

New animals at the compound

Baby Mountain Cottontail
Baby Mountain Cottontail

Well, we lost kitty, and I was thoroughly bummed out by this. Today, I decided to mow as it's a fairly mindless exercise and takes my mind off having to tell Jennifer that kitty is no more. While I was mowing, I went by my bluebird house. It had five tiny eggs in it two weeks ago, but the parents had abandoned the nest when I built a blind in front of the bluebird house to get some better shots.

On May 31st, I had checked the bluebird house and discovered 5 little bluebird eggs in a nest, but I hadn't seen the birds since, so I was fairly certain that the eggs were non-starters. Probably they'd make a good omelette, but not much else.

Then, as I was mowing, something came darting out of the bushes, and I jumped off the mower and chased it down on foot. As it turns out, it was a teenie weenie little baby Mountain Cottontail rabbit. I was like..."Oh my god I so have to catch this rabbit. It will make a perfect distraction from the missing kitty".

So, I chased it down on foot. Neither of us could run very far or very fast, but I caught up to the bunny by Jen's little outdoor playhouse and then I sort of shooed him inside of the clubhouse and trapped him there. At least, I thought he was trapped until he squeezed out of a crack about the size of a dime and headed for Mr. MacGregor's garden. I caught him inside the garden with my hands (I was wearing a pair of gloves), but he didn't try to bite me or anything. So, I put him in a cooler with some grass and water while I make some much-needed repairs to the rabbit hutch.

Then, I went back out to mow and when I went by the bluebird house, I saw the mom and dad bluebirds flying continuously from the freshly mowed field to the bluebird house. I was like "oh my god....I bet I've got some baby bluebirds!" I was so excited, so after I finished mowing for the day, I set up in my blind to get some shots of the parents. Finally, when I could stand it no more, I opened the bluebird house to see what was inside and found four teeny weeny naked pink baby bluebirds and one unhatched egg. :)

Four Baby Mountain Bluebirds
Four Baby Mountain Bluebirds

Update: I discovered that another bird house has a nest in it full of baby birds. This second nest is a Mountain Chickadees nest and the babies are older (they already have primary feathers on their wings). There are a lot of them in there - at least 5 - possibly more. I'm pretty sure that they're Mountain Chickadees, but Jennifer will have a field day if I'm wrong. She knows the birds up here better than I do and finds great pleasure in correcting me.

More photos in the extended entry.

Mature Mountain Chickadee
Mature Mountain Chickadee


Five Baby Mountain Chickadees
Five Baby Mountain Chickadees


Baby Mountain Cottontail
Baby Mountain Cottontail


Mature Female Mountain Bluebird
Female Mountain Bluebird


Four Baby Mountain Bluebirds
Four Baby Mountain Bluebirds

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Posted by Rob Kiser on June 11, 2008 at 04:32 PM

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