Farm Songs
-September, 2021 –
Early Mornings on the Farm
One of the most amazing things to do on the farm is to just be present, watch, and listen. If you happen to be doing this before sunrise (maybe because a puppy got you up) the first thing you notice is the crickets, katydids, and frogs. Together, they create a beautiful chorus that becomes the background music to your morning. If you aren’t careful, their song may lull you back to sleep. You won’t rest long- our roosters can detect the first hint of daylight and happily announce the coming day. We have Liberace who crows with the vigor of a cocksure rooster. But we also have an unnamed
rooster from our last batch of chicks. His crow sounds like an unsure laugh from someone with a really bad cold or someone making their first sound on a trumpet. It doesn’t so much as announce the coming day, but rather asks, “might this be morning?”
It's a bit odd to see a bald cardinal around the farm
The next critters to greet the day are the cardinals, with their distinctive chirp and whistle. Our male cardinal is bald, which is a weird thing for a bird to be but even weirder when you are supposed to have a big red tuff on the top of your head. A bald cardinal is not unheard of during fall molt, but our cardinal survived the winter, found a mate, and raised some chicks while rocking his baldpate. Hopefully whatever went wrong during last year’s molt works out for him this fall and we will soon see him with his scarlet mohawk. Next, it's the chipping sparrows and their extended family arrive to pick through all the garden goodies. We have some big sunflowers this year and the goldfinches are on them first thing. The mourning doves coo from a tree in the field as the sun rises over the eastern hills. Phoebe shows up, sleeping in a little now that chicks are fledged and bugs are plentiful. That’s when the mosquitoes show up and drive me inside for my first cup of coffee, ready like all those early morning critters, to start my day.
Non-sequitur puppy update -Kodi, at 15 weeks, is now bigger than Juneau.
A Technological Assist
This is who greets the dawn in late summer at the farm. It is a more diverse cast of characters in the spring and summer. I write about birds (other than chickens) quite a bit. I am fascinated by birds with all their forms, functions, and adaptations. I am particularly concerned with the decline of many of our bird species – we have lost 3 billion birds in my lifetime. When I don’t see or hear a bird that has been around previously, I notice and I worry. I have not seen an indigo bunting on the farm this year. This bummed me out until my early morning ritual of sitting on the porch (on puppy duty) listening to bird calls with the help of Merlin bird song identification app. I know this is cheating to some, but it is eye and ear opening to me. Yes, the indigo bunting is here, singing away every morning. I see the Baltimore orioles a lot less lately, but they are still here every morning singing and I am pretty sure stealing our blueberries. The Merlin app is free and tons of fun for a bird geek like me.
Farm time fills me with gratitude-as if the pot of gold is in the sugarhouse.
We are back at the Amherst and Great Barrington Farmers Markets for the season and attending various in-person festivals. Check out our website for where to find us. We're looking forward to seeing you!