Babies everywhere!

We were waiting for the call from the post office Tuesday morning to tell us our chicks had arrived. I heard the phone ring upstairs at 6:20 a.m., and was sure that no one else would be calling at that hour. I heard Hilda say hello and then burst into laughter, which made me think it wasn’t the post office. “I answered the phone and all I heard was ‘cheep, cheep, cheep,’” she told me when I went upstairs.Good to know the post office workers have a sense of humor.

Normally we get our chicks earlier than this. All the chicks in the order have to be shipped together so there are enough of them to stay warm, and the combination of breeds we ordered was not available until this week. After we thought about it, it seemed better because the nights would not be so cold. In a bold change of protocol, we put them right in Coop 2 rather than in the garage. So far, we like it a lot. Even though we are suddenly in a cool spell (and still NO RAIN), the chicks seem to be doing fine and have a lot of room to run around.

In addition to our usual meat chickens and Americauna (which lay the green-blue eggs), we are trying Barred Rock this year. This is a Barred Rock chick.

Barred rock chick

Here is one of the Americauna. There is also a brown and yellow one and one that will probably be pure white, like Lizette. The trouble is that she looks just like a meat chicken, so we won’t know which one she is for a few days, when she will be half the size of the other yellow chicks.

Americauna chick

When I let the chickens out Wednesday morning, they were surprised by the cool temperature. After their lap around the run, they decided that was enough of cold feet and huddled on the windbreak.

Shoot, that ground is cold this morning!

The baby 13-lined ground squirrels are out and about. Here’s a group of them (I counted 10) standing like meer cats by their burrow. This is too many ground squirrels. Where are the feral cats when you need them?

Ten baby ground squirrels

The orioles have been feeding their fledglings at the jelly feeder. It’s a bittersweet moment for us. We’re happy they have successfully reproduced, but this means they will be gone very soon. Summer is going too fast.

Mom oriole feeds a baby as large as she is

We have a male rose-breasted grosbeak who thinks he is an oriole. Here he is eating grape jelly.

Confused rose-breasted grosbeak eating the oriole's grape jelly

And being challenged by an orchard oriole. After the first confrontation, they shared the feeder briefly before being chased off. Competition for the jelly is fierce right now.

Orchard oriole challenging the grosebeak

Hilda has wanted some blueberry bushes as long as she has lived here. We don’t have the right kind of soil. She planted two in a raised bed with soil amendments. This year was the first harvest.

Hilda's blueberry bush

Not enough for muffins yet.

This year's harvest