Hunters and the Hunted

My camera has reached the end of its memory. I've got to clear it so I can keep snapping away. I do have yaks arriving tomorrow and it would be a crime if I couldn't take lots of pictures.

 So I'll let you peek at some of the photos I've been taking the past couple weeks. This is Cally, our calico barn cat who is extremely loose moralled. Yes, Cally fits in cuddle time for every male in the neighborhood. How do we know this? Well, every batch of kittens is a melting pot of colors and types, Siamese, tabby, gray, black and white, you name it. This means that we hear a chorus of toms serenading her and fighting over who she admired most.


This sadly also means that she has already had her first batch of kittens and they have not survived the cold. She does this every spring.

 Cinders here is a real lady and only has a batch or two of kittens a year. They are always a carbon copy of herself and I think she must only be friendly with the black tom that comes around now and then. She is my partner in the chicken coop at night. I spotlight a mouse who is pilfering the grain and she rounds it up removing it permanently.

 Percy here has just started hunting with me when Cinders isn't around. I feared he was a worthless bum but I've slimmed him down a bit and he's begun to hunt.

This is Sue, a male. Now don't kid me too badly but I truly thought this wild kitten was a female and when it became apparent he wasn't. It was too late, the name had stuck. OOOPS!! He lost his leg when he was two and now this hero of mine is seven. The oldest cat we've ever had at the corrals. As you can see by his rough appearance, he is one tough hombre.

 These are a few of my favorite bird. This is the Horned Lark. Horned because he has a feather that stickes out on each side of his head.

 And someone asked me what a Meadow Lark like. Well, here it is. I've done my best but this bird does not let anyone up close. It  makes the most beautiful sound in the springtime. It's flight reminds me of a ducks. It beats its wings very rapidly because its body in large in proportion to its wing size. It does glide much better than a duck though. 

You do not see a Meadowlark or a Horned Lark in town because they are a strictly prairie bird. We are blessed to have our home with its backside to the open countryside, for we can frequently listen to its call. 

 We see this bird, the yellow headed blackbird, a great deal at the corrals but not in our yard for it never comes into town. The black birds and the red winged black birds are in our yard and all over so why does this cousin not come?

We keep a bird feeder on a metal pole in our backyard for birds are truly one of our favorite things and our cat who is an excellent hunter can't climb it to get to them. Hence, our cat and the birds co-exist nicely. And with the bird feeder, we have a natural way of knowing if a big storm is coming. The birds empty the seed out in record time, filling up their tummies before holing up. Small storm, then they take their sweet time.