Cooler & Rain

We had a trace of rain on Tuesday, but on Wednesday we had a cold front come through and a nice rain. We had about half an inch of rain and the temperature dropped to 48°. It was back in the mid 70° today. The rain will help the wild flowers. Everything now seems to be budding except the honeysuckle.

I saw the first Hummingbird of the season this morning. It was actually drinking at the fountain in the courtyard. I knew it was about time for the hummers and I did put up two feeders on Friday since we were having guests. One at the cabin and my large one next to the screened porch. Didn't see any activity on the feeders though. I added another out back and will add some in the courtyard as well. It has been very windy and I have given up using squirrel baffles on the three bird feeders on the bluff. The wind catches them like a sail and they blow down the feeder or actually break the metal support rods. There is just too much wind. It's the chinook effect being located right at the bluff. (I learned weather and wind effects at the University of Oklahoma in Professor Harry E. Hoy's Physical Geography class) The baffled feeders below the mountain or in the back of the house are fine. We are really going through bird seed, but I do have eleven bird feeders. I did add a new one out front so that I can see it from my office window. I need to get a larger feeder for that location though.

Today is the day we begin feeding the bottle babies only one bottle per day. We will feed them a bottle only at evening feeding time now and hopefully soon they will accompany the rest of the goats to pasture during the day.