Pheasants

Recently, every time I go to the farm I either hear or spot pheasants, sometimes very close to the house. They emit loud and rather unpleasant, low-pitched screams when calling each other but their looks more than compensate for the shrieky voice. Yesterday I nearly walked into one when I was examining the northern part of the farm, trying to determine which trees needed to meet my chainsaw before others. I was looking up when suddenly he emerged from the bushes a couple of yards away on my right, rising as he flew over the fence to hide in the tall meadow beyond.

The one I photographed is at someone else's field. I noticed him when passing there by car... got out and began taking pictures. At first he continued pecking at the ground but when I extended my arms pointing my camera at him he must have thought I was holding a gun because he rushed towards the nearby maze field to hide:

They like to keep their distance but if you meet one up close you will see that they are quite large - at least the size of two well-fed chickens. Sometimes you can find some of their long tail feathers in the grass.

Starling nest on black elder

This unusual growth of leaves on an otherwise leafless black elder bush occurs around this year's empty starling nest at the farm. The leaves remain green and don't fall. It must have something to do with birds' droppings acting like a topical fertilizer because I have never seen such a growth on this - or any - bush before. The starlings built the nest early this spring, unfortunately, on a black elder growing right next to the front door of the house. Nobody was showing up there that early in the year so they assumed it was a good spot, protected from the wind and shaded by the house, I guess. Unfortunately, gardening season began soon after their young hatched. I think the parents were afraid to return to the nest because soon a dead young starling was found at the house doorstep. I don't know if they managed to bring up any other of their young or if they only had that single one but they must have been hanging around the nest a lot in the early spring to fertilize this part of the bush so well.