Northern Waterthrush

I think I'll call him Thud because that was the sound he made as he flew into the side window of my truck.

I was gassing up the weed trimmer and heard the thud sound behind me. This poor guy was on the ground, stunned and breathing heavily in the hot sun. Picking him up, I carried him to the shade of a small cherry tree (taking this picture first.)

It took a few minutes for him to recover but he flew away with a headache, I'm sure.

More info:
https://www.audubon.org/field-guide/bird/northern-waterthrush#

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Northern_Waterthrush/id

https://www.birdsofiowa.com/birds/62%20Parulidae/northern%20waterthrush/northern%20waterthrush.htm

With a diet of insects like mosquitoes we'd like to see more. Unfortunately, Iowa is just a migration route for them.

Thunder in the valley

As lightning strikes in the distance, the thunder rolls in (at ~20 sec) and rolls on for over 40 seconds.
Echoing across the valley seems forever as it bounces to us and beyond.



Taken at the homestead as the camera is pointed to our red maple tree. Thunder gives contrast as light rain washes against the leaves.

Take a break

I wear protection to try to save as much of my hearing that I have left. Mowing, running the tractor, or operating power tools like a saw, I wear something to soften the sound. On this day, I hung the earmuffs on the post by the gate.

I don't know why it struck me when I noticed this but I took a quick pic.

Taken on a sunny but cold day in February. A post that is wired tightly to a second post and braced to hang the gate. The one post is hollowed out top but not occupied by any birds.

Just a couple of lonely posts with a little bit of moss growing and my blue earmuffs giving it some more color. A blue sky with just a wisp of clouds, the neighbor's farm on the crest of the hill a mile or so away.

I see some interesting things when I take a brief pause to give a chance to look at the acreage. Sometimes taking the earmuffs off, I can hear the beauty of the land as well

So, I guess this reminds myself to take a break, look around and listen, deeply listen to the land.

There might be something that can be easily missed.

Deer profiles

Almost like they know the camera is there:

Tuesday Triumph - saying goodbye (probably)

It's been about two months since we've had any sightings of our three-legged deer. At this point we are thinking the worst. With the numbers of coyotes that have appeared, it's most likely that we lost her.

She was a good addition to the library of pictures from the farm.

We were hoping for more.

Monday moms - eat up

Eat up and then catch up with mom:

Friday is buck day - bucks at night

We've had many visits during August from three different whitetail bucks.

One example is this large buck:

Maximilian sunflower

This ubiquitous flower (or weed in some agricultural opinions) in fields, ditches and pastures is a Maximilian sunflower.

If these plants will do a better job of "choking" out noxious plant species, I may take a closer look at planting them instead of waiting for them to naturally spread.

Monday moms - dawn and dusk

At dawn:

And at dusk:

Cicadas 2019

Cicadas in the cottonwood trees.



More information.

Many of the North American species are the annual or jarfly or dog-day cicadas, members of the Neotibicen, Megatibicen, or Hadoa genera, so named because they emerge in late July and August