Ferruginous Hawk

I finally got this picture yesterday. This bird showed up here about a month ago and has been living up by the new barn. I thought it odd as I had never seen one before and because it just stays within the same small area.

As I mentioned before, we had a wonderful visitor on Sunday, his name is Francis Villablanca and he is a Professor and Curator of Birds and Mammals at Cal Poly State University. He told us what type of bird it is and said that they are open grassland birds that winter here and breed in the Interior West.

Because I wanted to find out more about them, I googled and came up with the following:

The Ferruginous (fer-OO-jin-us) Hawk means "rusty color" and refers to the coloration of the birds wing and legging feathers. It is from the Buteo (BEW-tee-oh) family, which is from a Latin word meaning falcon or hawk. Commonly describes a group of medium to large birds of prey that have long and broad rounded wings and short tails. These birds are masters at soaring for long periods of time. Twelve species of buteos breed in North America north of the Mexico border. These are the largest of the buteos.

The form of the Ferruginous is marked by a large body, broad wings, broad (relatively short) tail. One unique characteristic of this bird is the very large mouth. When viewed, it almost looks like the bird is smiling, or like a Red-Tail with an unusually large mouth. It averages 22.5-25" long, with a 53-56" wingspan. Sexes are alike, females average just a bit larger than males.

The Ferruginous hunts small rodents, mice, voles, snakes, squirrels, rats, prairie dogs, snakes, lizards, grasshoppers, and crickets. These birds are the equivalent of cargo planes - large with lots of momentum and power, but unable to be as maneuverable or quick as smaller birds. These birds frequently hunt in pairs

The birds tend to hunt in early morning or late afternoon. Birds hunt in four fashions: short distance strikes on prey from the ground, aerial hunting from low altitudes, aerial strikes from high altitudes (300 feet), and flying after prey from a perch. Hunting from the ground appears to be the more successful of the four methods. Since these birds inhabit open country, they can stand by a burrow and wait for prey to appear.

Like many raptors, prey is swallowed whole or torn into chunks. The ferruginous hawk then regurgitates a pellet of fur, feathers, bone, and other non-digestible material.

Populations of ferruginous hawks seem to have declined in most areas over their range, except in California where they appear to have increased significantly in the past decade. In Utah, the ferruginous hawk is listed as a State Threatened Species, and is a federal Species of Concern.

Between two hawks, which flies the higher pitch,
Between two dogs, which hath the deeper mouth,
Between two blades, which bears the better temper,
Between two horses, which doth bear him best,
Between two girls, which hath the merriest eye,
I have perhaps some shallow spirit of judgment;
But in these nice sharp quillets of the law,
Good faith, I am no wiser than a daw.
- William Shakespeare,
King Henry the Sixth, Part I
(Warwick at II, iv)

Rain!

We FINALLY got some rain. Our hay was really needing that water and it came this weekend. The totals varied greatly from area to area but we had a total of 1.2". It looks like no more rain for the next 10 days, but hopefully it will cycle through again after that.

We had a wonderful houseguest Saturday night. She is a great little 8 year old named Tagan is a granddaughter to my cousin who lives in the Lockwood Valley. She was so excited to help me feed the animals Sunday morning. We fed the ewes in the morning. We had already had the cute little one with black ears and black eyeliner. I pointed out that another ewe looked very close to delivering. When we drove back up there after lunch, we had twins!

A very nice couple, Kyle and Francis, came to visit in the afternoon. They were interested in seeing the farm. Frances is a biologist from Cal Poly and was a wealth of information. He went through the pellets from the owl that is nesting in the palm tree behind the house. Owls swallow much of their prey whole, including indigestible parts like bones, hair, and feathers. Their digestive systems remove the nutrients from these materials, and then the waste is squeezed into small balls that are easily regurgitated. This is much safer and more efficient than if all the indigestible material, including sharp bones, had to pass through their intestines.

Because I was curious, I googled voles:

Voles are small rodents that grow to 3-9 inches, depending on the species. They can have 5–10 litters per year. Gestation lasts for 3 weeks and the young voles reach sexual maturity in a month. As a result of this exponential growth, vole populations can grow very large within a very short period of time. Since litters average 5–10 young, a single pregnant vole in a yard can result in a hundred or more active voles in less than a year.
Voles are commonly mistaken for other small animals. Moles, gophers, mice, rats and even shrews have similar characteristics and behavioral tendencies. Since voles will commonly use burrows with many exit holes, they can be mistaken for gophers or some kind of ground squirrel. Voles can create and will oftentimes utilize old abandoned mole tunnels thus confusing the land owner into thinking that moles are active. When voles find their way into the home, they are readily misidentified as mice or young rats. In fact, voles are unique and best described as being a little bit like all the other animals they are so commonly thought to be.
They will readily thrive on small plants. Like shrews they will eat dead animals and like mice or rats, they can live on most any nut or fruit. Additionally, voles will target plants more than most other small animals. It is here where their presence is mostly evident. Voles will readily girdle small trees and ground cover much like a porcupine. This girdling can easily kill young plants and is not healthy for trees or other shrubs.
Voles will often eat succulent root systems and will burrow under plants or ground cover they are particularly fond of and eat away until the plant is dead. Bulbs in the ground are another favorite target for voles; their excellent burrowing and tunnelling gives them access to sensitive areas without clear or early warning.

“A wise old Owl sat on an oak, The more he saw the less he spoke, The less he spoke the more he heard, Why aren't we like that wise old bird?”
― Wisdom Quote

Brrrrrr

This picture of the icicle was taken at 10:30 Wednesday morning. Our faucet drips ever so slightly so I've put a bucket under the faucet and the cats drink from it.

It has been so cold and so dry this year. I read in the paper that it is the driest Decemeber and January is history. Although we have a freeze advisory tonight and tomorrow night, the forecast is calling for rain next weekend and the following Tuesday. Hopefully this is the beginning of our actual rainy season.

We have been pulling rocks from the fields and using them to make this rock bed for the runoff from the berry patch in anticipation.

We have been working on our 2012 budget. Ugh! That's the downside of this lovely lifestyle - it is still a business and must be run as such.

Ben is still applying his nightly "cologne" (really is skunk spray). He really has a thing about these varmints.

Ben and Angel were introduced to the chickens as puppies so that they would protect them and not harm them. Because our chickens are free range, we occasionally lose one to an eagle. Angel knows this. Whenever she sees any type of large bird, she goes crazy, running after it and barking. It is the funniest thing to see her racing across the fields, face turned toward the sky and sending it on its way. I guess it's efective.

This little suffolk lamb was born last week. I was wondering if it would retain its black color, so I googled it. I was told that some lambs are born black but will lose the color by adulthood.

"Let my words, like vegetables, be tender and sweet, for tomorrow I may have to eat them" Anonymous

Waiting for rain......

We have had a few beautiful mornings, but woke up to that same old Salinas River fog today. It's as soupy as can be, but is clear if you go 5 miles.

The fields are waiting to be planted - unfortunately no rain in the forecast and the "experts" are saying none for several more weeks. We are going ahead and planting some crops and praying for rain.

We in the midst of building a new chicken coop to help keep them safe from the coyotes and skunks. We have had so many skunks!

The cute little guy above is our grandson Landon. He loves to come visit Nana and Papa on the weekends and ride around to do chores. We took him up to the back property and saw that the herds of elk are starting to come for the winter. They are such beautiful animals.

We are busy planning 2012 budget and cleaning out the "old barn". New fences, new projects and new friends. It's never dull around HZ Harvest!

Call us and come for a visit. (805) 610-1053.

New birth and a hearty send off

This is our New Year addition. A cute little lamb with black eyeliner and black tipped ears.

The other picture is new favorite photo. Sugar is getting really big and the rows behind are just ready for planting. Unfortunately, we are having a serious lack of rain with none in the forecast. It also doesn't help that our mornings have been below 20 degrees.

Our son James left today to go back to his Army base for training. We are so proud of him. He is doing very well and really loves it. The downside is his needing to leave his family. His beautiful wife Melissa drove him to San Francisco to catch the plane back to South Carolina. I took care of my two grandbabies today. Landon will be 2 years old the day after tomorrow and Carter will be 8 weeks old the same day. They really had a great 2 weeks while he was home and we are all very thankful that he was able to be here. It sounds strongly that he may be deployed shortly after he completes his training so please keep him in your prayers.


"We owe our troops the opportunity to serve in the best-planned, best-equipped, and best-led military force in the world, and we owe them the peace of mind that comes from knowing that they and their families will be taken care of if they sacrifice life, limb or the ability to sleep without war's nightmares. We owe them not just thanks and best wishes, but action, and action in our nation's capital.”
Senator John Kerry quotes (American Senator, b.1943)

Barn & Skunks

Our new barn is nearly finished. We burned our brand into the door that is visible from the roadway. The door on the other end has the brand in 3-D. What a wonderful space for us. We planted hay this week and hopefully we will get some rain. The plan is to fill this lovely barn with hay to get us through next year.

Ben continues to hunt skunks. I'm not sure why he hates them so much, but I figure his "perfume" will become permanent soon. We have seen nothing but skunks, skunks, skunks dead on the roads lately. Since I am always curious, I googled to find out why:
by La Follette veterinary Services; Dr. Bill Sanders
April 1st, 2011
"All those dead skunks are not due to mass suicide or disease. To understand why the roads are covered with dead skunks a little understanding of skunk biology is necessary.
The most common type of skunk in our area is the stripped skunk. These are common animals, but seldom seen since they are nocturnal. This means they do most their eating, drinking and reproducing after dark. During the day they sleep in underground dens or burrows. They eat almost anything from insects and worms to trash and pet food. Since they have very poor vision and can’t see for more than a few feet, they locate each other and food by their sense of smell. Most importantly,skunks are seasonally reproductive. After the first of the year, the increasing daylight and warming temperatures turns a little gear in their brains that tells them this is the season to reproduce. As spring comes around the weather warms up and there is a prolific bounty of insects and plants from which they can feed their babies.
So, skunks come out from their long winter slumber with a powerful appetite and an urge to make babies. It is these behaviors that puts them on the roads late at night. They are roaming about looking for a mate and something to eat. They are just doing their skunk thing, what comes natural, when along comes a car that they just can’t see and well, the rest of the story you know."

I hope your new year is good (or at least better than last year).


"Sometimes when you get in a fight with a skunk, you can't tell who started it."
Lloyd Doggett