Injured Or Sick Crow

Today when i went to take JuJu the donkey for a walk, we came upon a big crow laying on the ground. At first I thought it was dead, i thought the movement in it's body was orchestrated by a million maggots and bugs eating it's insides... till I realized it's eye was actually blinking at me. I bent down and immediately touched it, so the black crow flapped it's good wing and favored the bad one that appeared to have scrapes on it.
I don't know much about crows, but after nursing two sick chickens this winter until their death it seemed the end for the crow was near. Pointing it's head into the air, something called "star gazing"... a creepy spiritual sort of movement they do when life is leaving their body. I still took it to my spring water to see if it had interest in drinking, and it did. That gave me a glimmer of hopeless hope.

I put the crow on some leaves in a box where it could be peaceful and safe, I started feeding it with a dropper- water and mushed up food, rice milk... anything it seemed to like.

It knew when i was going to feed it, and opened it's mouth like a baby in a nest.

Eventually it's one eye that wouldnt open, opened wide and it became very alert, less lethargic. But still the head turned around, pointing to the sky continued.....

My cat toots was curious about who was the latest patient in the blue box...

JuJu the donkey was more jealous the curious... she tried knocking the box over, stepped on my camera and also tried stealing the mushed up food for the crow.

Then once I spent far too long helping the crow, JuJu of course ran away!

The beautiful crow is still blinking it's eye at me, still breathing... but I expect not for long.

xoxoxoox

I Liked When Ms. Buttersworth Lived With Me

I had put Ms. Buttersworth the chicken back out with the other chickens........
but not really. She's been staying in the feed section of my mini-barn where the rooster and most the other chickens never go. Anytime I tried putting her back with the others they immediately picked on her, pulling out her feathers, the rooster mounting her so violently I could tell that this was why i had found her in a corner shivering in the first place. After bringing her in the cabin for a week, we got to know each other. We spent many long hours sitting with my cat Toots by the warm fire.
I never imagined a chicken would love me, but Ms. Buttersworth now loves me in a chicken love kinda way. She wants me to hold her, she coo's when she's warm in my arms, she perches on my arm, and nests in my lap. I miss her being in the Luck Cabin with me.
I don't know if chickens are really smart creatures, but they are definitely sensitive with a range of feelings - even if those feelings never form into thoughts as we humans know it.
( Side Note: i am not meaning to make any statements on whether we should eat them or not, I eat what I can eat AKA what I am not allergic to... these observations are just how i see nature.)
Of course... JuJu the donkey wishes she could live with me too. Why can't all my babies be potty trained? Or maybe I should move into my barn instead! ;)

Xoxoxox

Big Black Crow

They mean something to me, the crows.

I'll share the story why...

Back some years ago I was pregnant, and so sick after the first 2 1/2 months I could no longer eat, and eventually could hardly drink any water. When you are starving to death, creeping below 80 pounds, you become acutely aware of your surroundings, your spirit, your hormones spinning thoughts in repetitive patterns... and you become loopy, you hallucinate. I had a name picked out for the baby already, his name was going to be Orion Harold Richard- but as time/weeks drew on I could feel both me and Orion slipping away from life. I began singing a song in my mind, over and over, day and night like a broken record for over a week. Blackbird by The Beatles, and being that I had lost my mind from hunger and knowing what was to come, at that point I changed the baby's name simply to Blackbird in my mind.

When I got in the truck (still chanting the song in my head like a mantra) on the way to get an emergency surgery that would end the pregnancy and save my life, immediately a large flock of black crows came flying along side the road. I noticed and nodded. When me and the father of Orion/Blackbird parked outside the doctor's clinic waiting for the nurses and doctor to arrive giant black crows began landing right ON THE TRUCK! Literally- on the mirror next to me in the passenger seat, on the hood, flapping their wings at the dashboard, hopping on the ground around us. You could say I was in shock, comfort and awe. I am sure at the time I sounded insane to Orion's father, but I told him the blackbirds were there for me... he shook his head and asked me if i wanted to eat something. But what really went on inside me at that moment were two things:
*One, I realized that nothing lives or dies without being made up of parts of something else - the air i was breathing out would be inhaled by other creatures, plants and the crows making a fuss at my window, they would lay eggs, have babies, everything was a cycle of borrowed molecules.
*Two, I felt the soul of my own baby Blackbird, my Orion leave my body - it took my breath away and I couldn't explain that feeling to anyone.

After that experience, Each time I was going somewhere significant in my life the crows would show up, a flock that would fly in the direction I knew I belonged to be going. I would know I was going to the wrong home, back to the wrong life, if they flew the opposite way of my car. The big 'blackbirds' signaled when I needed to move on, when I needed to stay, and when I needed to be reminded I wasn't alone.

Now I live where they stay. Crows surround my house everyday, I find them in the fog in the woods, down by the creeks, in my trees, on my porch - swooping back and forth making their loud caw'ing sounds- telling me over and over that I am now home. I can finally stay somewhere and call it my own.


Xoxoxooxox Love U crows.

Screech Owl... oh my gawd I am the luckiest me I eva' was

If I told ya how I got this close to the screech owl, ya might not believe me... but I will tell ya'll the story anyway...
I heard a sound outside the house that I thought was my cat meowing for my help, so i stepped out onto the deck and made some lilting, soothing calls of her name - Toots. Suddenly I heard the trill call of the screech owl from the large pine tree, then saw the small owl spread it giant wings and fly across in front of me over to the apple tree. It made another soft trill (go here to listen to the sound) - which I copied back to it. We were talking... me and the owl in both our languages. I have no idea about what.
When I got right underneath it with my camera, after a few pictures it got nervous enough to fly into the more camouflaged branches of the apple tree, rather then sitting on top the lone dead branch.
I quietly walked along under the tree, continuing to talk 'trill' with it - long enough to take a few more pics and get to see it spread it's beautiful wings wide - then fly off, low to the ground and swoop up into another apple tree further up the hill.
According to superstition and the Native American beliefs {described by Tom Brown in The Tracker}, an owl only shows itself to you when someone is going to die. Literally.
...
I am still happy to see it, I have waited many years to be this close to an owl again.
"These common owls are fearless in defense of their nests and will often strike unsuspecting humans on the head as they pass nearby at night. When discovered during the day, they often freeze in an upright position, depending on their cryptic coloration to escape detection. The two color phases, which vary in their relative numbers according to geography, are not based on age, sex, or season.
Nesting: 3-8 white eggs placed without a nest lining in a cavity in a tree or in a nest box."

Read more about owls in your region at Enature.com!

XoXoxoxoxo hoo hoo!

Turkey Vulture In The Grey Sky

Every time i see one of these big turkey vultures I usually mistake it for a hawk. And for all I know, I may be now mistaking a hawk for a turkey vulture... but i don't think so. As much as people don't like vultures close up (people don't seem to think they are as beautiful a bird as they really are), from a distance these large birds have as much intense graceful presence as other birds of prey. Turkey vultures carry a huge windspan, as wide as an eagle!
This turkey vulture pictured here- let's call him Larry, was swooping really low to the ground above my head, which is highly unusual. I usually see these birds in groups of 2 to 4, swaying, gliding, and circling overhead. Larry though was all alone, and I almost could swear once he saw me taking pictures he began showing off... you know in a really dark, goth kind of way (as not to totally ruin his Edgar Allen Poe style reputation.)

From Enature.com:::
"Soaring for hours over woodland and nearby open country, the Turkey Vulture searches for carcasses, locating them at least partly by means of its acute sense of smell. As they soar, these "buzzards" ride on rising columns of warm air called thermals to save energy as they cover miles of territory. The importance of this energy saving is clear from the fact that we seldom see a Turkey Vulture on a windless day, when thermals do not form. Turkey Vultures are valuable for their removal of garbage and disease-causing carrion.
Nesting: 2 whitish eggs, heavily marked with dark brown, placed without nest or lining in a crevice in rocks, in a hollow tree, or in a fallen hollow log."
XoXo

Animal Tracking: Prints In The Snow

The snow has made some really fun animal & bird prints this week! Every inch of snow is like an empty canvas waiting for the imprint of nature to draw something simple, complex and soothing on it. There is nowhere an animal can tread now without leaving a sign of it's passage in the fluffy frozen snow...
The first pic up top I am pretty sure is a hopping bird. This is close under the apple tree and bean rows where I have been watching tons of birds each day try to find food. This spot in particular looks as though they sunk a little and then had to hop out.
This next pic above may look a little scattered, but that is because it is from the Guinea Hens - they stay in close tight groups while walking around in search of food which leaves prints in a jumbled mess in the snow.
Unlike this next pic...
The perfect skipping paw prints of a small dog!

This next evidence is from a rabbit, who is using the same path over and over again under the fallen bamboo! I was pretty sure it was rabbit tracks, then i saw this scat (poop) pictured below and was certain it must be a big bunny!
This last pic below was the prints of a tiny brown and white feathered bird next to the well house. I am not sure how they ended up being straight lines, except maybe the snow was not sinking as much, and the bird's hops were tiny and connected? Or possibly it goes to the same spot over and over and re-traces it's steps? What do you think?
XoXo

Giant Red, Black and White Woodpecker

Ya'll would not believe how excited I was when this morning I saw this giant woodpecker fly right to a dead branch of a native Cherry Tree outside my window and start pecking! I have only had the privilege of seeing this type of woodpecker two other times in my life in the last 9 years of living in the smokey mountains - they are HUGE woodpeckers, the second largest in North America and are hard to stalk or get a glimpse of. This one was the smaller of the three I have seen (and is female), but just as powerful a presence and just as striking with it's strong colorful markings and red mohawk head.
They make loud wild jungle cries, which you can listen to at Enature.com... click here!
The first time I ever saw a Pileated Woodpecker it was tremendous, I had never seen a bird so big. I was living in Bethel, NC in the Pisgah National Forest, the woodpecker had landed on a wooden outbuilding behind the house as I had been quietly standing there. It had not seen me and we were hardly 10 feet apart, when it did see me it did not seem to care I was there- we locked in a long unifying stare that I could never put a time frame on. I was in awe and wished I could see another one like it after it finally flew off.
The second time I saw one of these woodpeckers I was sitting inside my tiny house in Marshall, NC which was also deep in the woods - some unpainted wood siding had just been put on a small portion of the house. I was totally alone when I heard something hammering so loud on the side of the house I thought a human was pounding the back of the house with a sledge hammer! It was deafening and scared the crap out of me. I slowly walked to the back of the house, as I heard more frantic hammering but I could hear no human moving around back there. When I got around the corner of the house, there was the giant woodpecker slamming away at the wood. I had got my wish to see one again. :)
Info from enature.com: "After the extremely rare Ivory-billed Woodpecker (Campephilus principalis), this is the largest woodpecker in North America. Despite its size, this elegant woodpecker is often shy and hard to observe. Obtaining a close view of one usually requires careful stalking. Although primarily a forest bird, the "Logcock" has recently become adapted to civilization and has become relatively numerous even on the outskirts of large cities, where its presence is most easily detected by its loud, ringing call and by its large, characteristically rectangular excavations in trees. Its staple food consists of carpenter ants living in fallen timber, dead roots, and stumps. The woodpecker excavates fist-sized rectangular cavities, then uses its enormously long, sticky tongue to reach the ant burrows...
17" (43 cm). A crow-sized woodpecker. Black with white neck stripes, conspicuous white wing linings, and prominent red crest. Male has red "mustache," female has black...
Lays 4 white eggs in a tree cavity."

XoXo