Don't Get Me Started...

The road into our Prairie Hill Farm Studio is in much better shape than a couple weeks back. The county crews are a couple miles south of us now, doing more work yet. They aren't finished here on the ditches but hopefully will be some day!

There is so much happening here now...it's a very busy time for the birds...the Robins are on 2nd and 3rd nestings, the House Wrens are in several houses around the acreage. The Red-headed Woodpeckers, Hairys, Downeys, and Red-bellieds are all raising families in the grove and beyond. The Baltimore Orioles are in their hanging "basket" about 14 feet above the driveway and the Eastern Bluebirds are in the box about 20 feet south of them!

The Killdeers are running amuck all over the 'New" gravel road...don't know how they've fared with new construction? And each day and night we hear the crazed squabbling over at the Great Blue Heron rookery across Waterman Creek.

The last blog led with a photo of our American Kestrels. I've been trying to watch for the adults feeding the young but have not been able to sit in a blind to keep track due to deadlines I've been facing. However, yesterday I set the camcorder up and just let it run on the nest box...then went about my work while it taped without me.

One of the youngsters has left the nest now and is sitting in the trees nearby, while it's sibling is still box bound and begging from there. During the 75 minutes I taped, the chick in the box was only fed once...you can see how long the parent bird lingered - not long! It shoved a dragonfly into the chick's mouth and was off and running again. I sure hope they're catching more than one dragonfly every 75 minutes!!! I'm sure they are :)



Take a look at the sequence here and watch the little guy (gal?) gulp it down!

Ain't technology wonderful! It let me see this by doing something for me while I was doing something else!

I've also added this video to the NW Iowa Watchable Wildlife website's "Trips Afield" page at: http://www.watchablewildlifenwia.org/links-Videos.htm - you can just click on the "American Kestrel" tab and watch it there as well.

On Monday I was finally able to deliver a computer kiosk with a fun educational touch screen program with over 50 videos. I've been working nearly non-stop on it since April. The kiosk's hard drive went south on Wednesday.

Ain't technology wonderful?!

Well, OK sometimes...but don't get me started!

Newcomers

Although a little scruffy yet, this American Kestrel chick
is definitely a little beauty!

Most folks never seem to notice this little bird...it sits patiently on telephone and power lines or hovers with rapid wing beats over the ditches and pastures. How can you nonchalantly drive past our most colorful falcon...the smallest falcon in North America, and not stop to notice or admire!?!

This summer a pair of Kestrels (American Kestrel) took up residency in our north grove Screech Owl box. Kestrels are cavity nesters. A couple weeks or so back I began to hear chicks making noises in the box and the parent birds were being very vocal around the yard...doing lots of stunt flying, scattering birds everywhere.

I watched whenever I was near the grove and did see the adult birds dive swiftly into the box but they never hesitated at the entrance for photo opportunities. Today the chicks finally became large and brave enough to stick their heads out the entrance, and one even hopped onto the top of the box for a couple minutes. I walked over after seeing this and did manage a very few shots of just one of the youngsters squawking for more breakfast.

It'd be nice to get photos of the parents but that may not be likely, as they're very skittish when Georgie or I walk toward the nesting box, but we'll try and monitor whats going on when we're out and about.

Look up every now and again when you're outside and enjoy the aerial wonders above the prairie!