Bird Watching

One hobby that Rusty and I enjoy (but don't get out to do as often as we'd like) is 

Bird Watching.

A couple of weeks ago, after dinner was over & cleaned up, I saw that we a couple of hours before bedtime so I asked Rusty if he wanted to go bird watching.  (Birds in the distance are Great Blue Herons)

Camas Wildlife Refuge is about 20 miles from us, so we (Brienna, Emmalee & Ben) hopped into the van with our binoculars, camera & bird books.

This is the most water Rusty has seen here in years (and for me--ever!).  The herons took off before we could get closer.

 As soon as we get to the dirt road by the water, we unbuckle & let the kids take turns "driving".  Benjamin really had a blast turning the wheel back & forth.  

 Emmalee had a turn, also, but I guess her pictures didn't turn out.

 But this picture of her is adorable!

 We saw about 50 different kinds of birds.  I had to take this picture for my sister, Pamela.

 Some sand hill cranes in the distance.  They are one of my favorite birds.  We saw 3 in the fields before we reached Camas.

 Here is a sand hill crane on a nest--you can see a bit of the red on the head.

 I think these were the grebes we saw.

 Brienna drove quite a ways on the dirt road--but never got above 20 mph.

 Rusty had to be in the front--so I sat in the middle with the kids.  They had fun crawling back and forth.

 This is a curlew in the road.  He flew away before I got a good picture of him.

If you look close, he is flying away on the left of the picture.  And you can see the curved, long beak.

 And as we were leaving, we saw more sand hill cranes just out our window.

 They like the farmer's fields.

At one point, we saw 2 kill deer in the road.  So we tried to show Emmalee.  She was almost in tears because she said she couldn't see it. 

 I told her there were 2 kill deer--one right on the road and one that just was on the side.  She even climbed into the very back so she could try to see it again.

By this time she was in tears.  So I turned around and could still see the bird on the road and pointed it out to her.  "See--there's the bird."

Emmalee said, "But I don't see the dead deer!"

She was looking for a "killed deer" on the road.

(sorry for the "gross" photo)

After I explained it to her, and showed her the picture of the bird out of the book, 

she finally understood what we were talking about.

Pig Weigh-In (June)

 It was pig weigh in to make sure the pigs were growing at a good pace & will be able to make weight by fair time (mid-August).

 So we made a chute with the straw.  And Emmalee climbed up to wait for the trailer to haul the pigs to the scale.

 And of course, Benjamin had to climb up with her. 

 Can you tell he is having fun?  (and don't you love the deceiving sunshine--but we are wearing our winter coats!) 

 The wind was pretty strong, and it was a bit chilly.  Hard to believe it's June 2nd. 

 Ben looking at the pigs basking in the sun (I guess they were trying to warm up).  We haven't had very many days of sunshine!

 Daddy makes a comfortable chair!

 Our pigs cooperate and get into the trailer without any problem (and so quickly I barely get a picture)!

 And they also got off to get weighed.

 Here's Callum's pig (Wilber)

 And we didn't have much of a problem getting them back into the trailer.

 And back into the pig pen at home.

 And the first thing they did was roll in the mud.

 Ah--nice!  

1 month ago Zane's pig=85 pounds.

June=150 pounds.  Only needs 60 pounds to make weight for fair.

1 month ago Callum's pig=135 pounds.

June=218 pounds.  His pig has made weight!  Now he's just growing for added money at the livestock sale.