The hummingbirds returned a week early this year. Just 2 days after I cooked up some hummingbird juice for the feeders, we saw our first one of the season. They usually stay in our valley from April through October. Very cool. I’ve even learned how to get one to sit on my finger. I’d love to get video of that someday, but it takes A LOT of patience. The elk are also back. Check out this photo we shot last weekend.
(I’m sorry. The photo got lost in the internet abyss, and I cannot find the original photo to upload again.)
This is only part of the herd that lives here over the summer. They come into the area to calve. Sorry the image isn’t great. They often come through at dusk, so the light is weird. Plus, I was zoomed out quite a bit.
They have passed behind our house nearly every evening recently.
Remember the that coyote from a while back? She’s had her pups because we can hear them yipping after dark now. The den (or at least one of them) is in some rocks on the hill behind our house. We haven’t seen them yet, but the big male daddy coyote has been very busy hunting lately. We just saw both parents right behind the house. I put the dogs out after breakfast, and suddenly both were barking up a storm. Lilly even started to howl, so I went to see what was what and saw both the adults right behind the back fence. I brought the dogs in, but they coyotes still headed back up the hill toward the den. It snowed again last night. Maybe they’re going to check on the pups.
There is also a huge magpie nest in the tree outside our bedroom window. Man! Are those babies going to be noisy when the hatch!!! I guess that’s our summertime alarm.
Oh, and I spoke too soon for the pepper plant. It got very cold (even in the greenhouse) recently, and the pepper plant bit the dust. Darn it! Considering everything s covered in ice this morning, it looks like I should put off planting any seeds for at least another week.
That’s all the biology news for now. Have a great Saturday!
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