The Spring Project
We are starting a big Spring project today. We are having mulch and pea gravel delivered. We put the mulch down in early Spring because the plants have started to peek up but haven't leafed out yet, making it easier to place it where it needs to go. You can guess where we are putting the pea gravel. Yep. We settled on pea gravel for the dog area. We really thought about other ground covers(see previous blog 29)but chose pea gravel for a number of reasons including; we could hose off the gravel, it was rounded for comfort(paws and laying down),and it was heavier and less likely to wash away during a hard rain. We are getting 6 ton of the gravel and 8 cubic yards of mulch. That will take the weekend to put down. Because any home project can't be easy, we will use the wheelbarrow until we get to the dog fence but then have to transfer the gravel with buckets and shovels because the wheelbarrow does not fit through the gate. So be it! We will all be happier when we can let the dogs out in the yard and they can romp and play outside together.
Meanwhile Out in the Woods... The Cooper's hawk continues to put on a great show building its nest. Some of the sticks it is using are so huge that it sticks out and hits other branches while the hawk is trying to get back to its nest. I was curious about which sex was the nest builder, so as any good researcher, I looked on line. Turns out that both male and female participate in nest building. We've only seen one bird at a time at our nest. The Cooper also reuses old nests and rebuilds then in late March, with egg laying and sitting in mid April. Oh,this will be fun to observe! There are some really good videos on line to see Cooper's Hawks up close and hear their calls. I do hope they stay. I read that Cooper's are the shyest of hawks and will abandon their nests of there is too much activity.
Beeks and I uncovered many interesting discoveries today on our morning walk around the house. While I (with coffee in hand) started out looking at all of the recent eruptions of baby iris and hostas, Beeker looped like a crazy dog around the lot. He has really begun to get the recall business down. I recalled him a number of times and he would come to me, then when released, off he went for more loops. Later while I was working in the front garden, I put him in a down stay and he stayed there until I released him, about 10 minutes later.Yea Beeks!
Early on our roundabout, he stopped close to the edge of the yard, near the wood line and started to sniff intently. I went over to him and looked at his discovery. It was a pellet,like that an owl gives up when the hair of its prey have gotten too much. Kinda like a hairball. Or this could have been the scat of the fox or coyote that live in the area. It definitely wasn't the deer or raccoon that we often see. As we moved on, looking for the first signs of fern, I saw raccoon skin and fur. It was out a ways by our fire pit. It took me a minute to figure out it was raccoon. It definitely wasn't a squirrel.The coloring and thickness were wrong. Beeks was REALLY interested in the smells. The fur was scattered over a two foot area. Not too far from the Cooper's Hawk nest. This is fairly close to our back deck and bedroom door. How did we not hear the racket this must have caused? Were we asleep? How is it that the dogs didn't hear it either? Returning to the front of the house and front garden, Beeks uncovered white soft bunny like fur. It was downy. No other signs of this animal, just white fur a number of places. Beeks again was highly interested. I need one of those night cameras to set up and watch what happens in my yard when we are asleep. The woods have so much activity which will be obscured even more when the green fills in and the tree leaves fill out. Then we will not even be able to see our neighbors. But that is a story for another day.
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