It’s Day Three of Phoebe Week at HenCam! The Eastern Phoebes nesting on the porch aren’t the only Phoebes here. There is, of course, the rabbit.

 

It’s only a coincidence her coloring is so similar to the birds of the same appellation. However, her muted greyish-brown tones did give this Phoebe her name. Our rabbit was named after one of Saturn’s moons. She was given that name by one of my sons. He’s a rabbit guy. Some folks are dog people, others crazy about cats. He likes rabbits. He also likes science and space. When I brought Phoebe home from the animal shelter in 2012, he took note of her dusky coloring and told me that she had a low albedo, like one of Saturn’s moons. (Albedo is a term for how much radiation a heavenly body reflects back. Yes, we are so geeky here that the names of our animals often have a basis in serious science.)

Unlike the other animals, Phoebe has not been trained to come, and so she doesn’t get to roam around the yard – too dangerous! But, life in the chicken pen was getting boring, so my son rabbit-proofed the goats’ paddock. Now Phoebe can have hop-arounds.

Although I give Phoebe carrots, and often pull up clover and green growing things to give to her in her pen, she says that grass tastes much better when it’s still attached to the ground.

 

When she gets tired of the eating and exploring, there’s a shady place to rest,

 

where inquisitive and pesky goats can’t bother her. (Look closely, Phoebe is under there!)

 

Tomorrow Phoebe Week returns to the birds!

(For more about keeping a rabbit with your flock, read this FAQ.)

It’s Day 2 of Phoebe Week!

The female Eastern Phoebe sat on her nest for about two weeks, with breaks to eat and defecate (the porch floor is a mess!)

 

All of the eggs hatched, and this is what we saw on June 30.

 

I have to say that there are few things less attractive than these helpless, big-headed, eyes-shut hatchlings. I know that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. But, really.

Three days later they looked a tad less ugly. Feathers were coming in. They could hold their heads up. Still. Not cute.

 

 

The demands of feeding such fast growth requires constant forays in search of insects by both parents.

 

 

I wonder where the mamma sleeps once there’s no room in the nest?

As promised – it’s Phoebe Week here at HenCam!

Day One:

This is where I live:

 

Of course, a house is not just the home of the people who live inside. So many creatures live on the walls (daddy longlegs) and under the steps (chipmunks) and in the attic (bats, who we love to see swooping around at dusk, decimating the mosquito population.)

We hang the bunting up for Memorial Day, and take it down the week after July Fourth. But not this year. This year we have to wait until our newest residents leave home.

This springtime we saw this fellow flying around the front yard. It’s a drab little bird with a lovely call – fee-bee! (Hear it here.)

 

It’s an Eastern Phoebe, and not only do I appreciate it for the birdsong, but also for its feeding habits. The Phoebe is in the flycatcher family, and eats flying insects, including wasps, and also eats ticks. So, I was especially pleased when I saw a Phoebe carrying nesting material to the porch. 

 say that there are no distinguishing marks to tell the sexes apart, but I’m guessing that this is a female, because she’s the nest builder. (The male points out a good site, and then lets her do the work. .)

 

A pair of Eastern Phoebes claimed a prime nesting location above the first pillar of our front porch. They built the most beautiful nest I’ve ever seen, using moss, strands of dried grass, and goat hair. Each day the female Phoebe laid a perfect, very small, brown egg. She stopped laying when she had a clutch of five.

 

Then she sat. (The female does the incubating, and that’s how I know that she is a she.)

 

Check back tomorrow to find out what happened next!

I live in a small community about thirty miles west of Boston. Being so close to the city and hard by much larger towns, it would be easy for us to lose our identity, but we have some hard-working volunteers and a deep sense of place, and that is reaffirmed at our celebration called Old Home Day. One of my friends has lived in Carlisle for more than forty years, and she has volunteered at this event every single year. Old Home Day is usually held the weekend before Independence Day, and it looks and feels like a July Fourth Celebration, but we keep it small and centered.

The day starts out with a free pancake breakfast and a road race (which is open to creaking parents and small children, though it’s usually some teenager who blazes through with a fast time.) Then people gather at the town common to watch the parade.

 

Horses lead it off. (I don’t bring Tonka – he hasn’t yet been trained to be a parade horse. Maybe in the future!)

 

Much of the parade is filled with a ragtag of children.

 

No banners with causes, or politicians, are allowed. But, we do love our caped crusaders.

 

Minute Men march.

 

The fire department tosses candy from its trucks.

 

There are “floats” like this tractor from Clark Farm.

 

Instead of candy, they handed out strawberries!

 

Clark Farm also showed off its goats. Recognize the truck? It’s in 

 

The highlight of this year’s parade was a new entry – the Garden Club put together a drill team! They performed in front of the judges stand.

 

Some years we have a marching band, This year’s group didn’t exactly go in for precision and uniforms – and we like it like that. The drummer is in a well-known rock band. His friends, all professionals, mostly jazz artists, came out to march. Well, maybe not exactly “march.” But, what music!

 

There are also booths with things for sale, like cotton candy and trail maps of the town’s conservation land. The Boy Scouts sell burgers. There’s an art show. Awards are announced for honors like Conservationist of the Year. There is a cake decorating contest.

 

The cakes are then carried over to the town hall, where in the evening there’s a Firemen’s BBQ and a Cake Walk. For 25¢ you can try to win one of the cakes in a game rather like musical chairs.

 

The fun of the cake walk is that even if you don’t win, probably someone you know has, and they share. That takes a lot of cakes, but we have them! This year more than 70 cakes were donated. I brought these cupcakes.

 

Today we were invited to watch the fireworks in Boston. But, I’d rather stay home, away from the crowds. I’ve already had a perfect Fourth.

Happy Independence Day!

Tonka and I have been busy. The sport that I do with him is dressage. You might have seen photographs of large and fancy horses trotting in place with their noses pointed to the ground. That’s dressage, but that’s not what I do. At dressage’s foundation is the belief that slow and systematic training can create fluid communication between the rider and the horse. Both become flexible and athletic. Movement flows. Dressage done right creates a horse and rider pair that is physically able to be a team for many years. Done right, you get into tune with your horse partner. You get so into sync that small shifts in position cue the horse. For example, if I shift slightly down with my hip, Tonka rises into the trot from the walk. If I take a deep breath and stretch my torso up, he slows. A change in how soft his mouth feels in my hands via the reins tells me how comfortable he is. Perfect communication and movement is hard to come by. Sometimes we feel it for only a second or two. We work at it.

 

I do this for the partnership, not because I have competition in mind. But, it’s fun to get out. It’s good to have a judge’s opinion of how we’re doing. At a dressage show you ride a preset test pattern, by yourself in a ring. A judge scores each movement.

 

We’ve been to three shows and ridden four tests. We’ve done well. Five blue ribbons (those are first places) and one second. (A couple of those extra ribbons were for high point placements in our division.)

 

But, I wouldn’t want Tonka to only see the inside of a ring. We get out. The other day, just the two of us went for an almost six mile ride through a forest.

 

We get out with friends, too.

Horse people talk about balance a lot. You have to have it when in the saddle, or you end up on the ground! I think that we should talk about balance in our lives with our horses, too. Time in the woods improves the time in the ring. And time in the ring opens the communication channels that make excursions into the woods safe and enjoyable.

Tonka and I help others to find this balance. We have clients that we’ll be introducing the wide world of the trails to. Details about this service is at my other website, The Cooperative Horse.

I also teach specific behaviors to horses using positive reinforcement and clicker training. For example, if you’re having trouble getting your horse to trailer calmly, a reward-based approach can ease everyone’s anxiety. One very useful behavior is to teach a horse to stay. You can find my instructions on how to do that here or on the Karen Pryor Clicker Training site.