Africa

Conversation at the Rolli house this morning:

Isaiah: I'm going to grow up and build a house in Africa.
Me: You're leaving me and going to Africa?
Isaiah: Yeah, I want a pet giraffe and elephant.
Matthew: Go to Como Zoo.

Mama Robin

We weren't the only ones moving in last week to the new place. A mama Robin was making fast work of a little home for her babies. She is living on our patio under the overhang. We can see her sitting in her nest from our living room patio door. I'd post pictures but I'd have to find the camera and charger first. Stay tuned...



Unlike the Killdeer incident of last spring I have no worries of feral cats ruining our fun and Mrs.Robin's hard work. I think she's high enough and protected well. I thought for sure that little nest was going to blow away yesterday, it did not. Oh, me of little faith.



For now, we look out the patio window and see the very exciting act of Mrs.Robin sitting as still as a statue on her little clutch. Personally, I'm more excited to see hatchlings, this part isn't all that fun. Anna, however, is excited to see the Robin so close and unmoving. Maybe she's just more patient.

Hummingbird Nest

My dad forwarded me an email with information about a mama hummingbird and her two little eggs. Apparently the photographer captured some early moments in a hummingbird's life; from egg, hatching, growth and the leaving of the nest. Here is the website from where the photos originated and it has all the information about the photographer and the dates the photos were taken. Also there are a few more photos on the website than what I posted here. Very neat.

Elk Hunting

Dear Mr. Elk,

Be afraid, be very afraid.

Sincerely,

Mrs. Rolli

Flower Friend

As I was dead-heading the Chrysanthemum on our front steps, I found a friend. This little guy must like 'mums as well. He was all tucked up in amongst the flowers and leaves. I thought he was pretty cute.









I took a couple photos and noticed that he maybe doesn't like to have his picture taken. He hopped out of the flower pot in disgust and landed on the cement. No worries, I picked him up and tucked him back into the flowers. He looked rather annoyed with me so I left him alone after that. Sorry to disturb you little friend.

My Life

This buck has been our dinner (and breakfast and lunch) companion for the last week. He has not found a home on our walls as of yet. Am I the only wife in the world that has a deer head on her dining room table? Is this an odd thing? If this is a bit out of the ordinary feel free to keep your comments to yourself..... sigh

Conover, WI

Last Saturday my sister, Sally, and I went on a little road trip. Matthew was going to be doing some farm work and house projects that would not go very smoothly with two kiddos "helping" so off we went up north.

My mom and dad are spending the week up north in Conover, WI and we went up to visit for a couple nights. We left Saturday morning and came home Monday. We had a great little mini-vacation and, although we wished Matthew was with us, had a fun time.

We spent lots of time fishing, playing checkers and going for bike and boat rides. On Sunday we went down to Eagle River and walked around town a bit and went go-carting. I don't have the photos of the the go-carting adventure as those photos are all on my mom's camera and my folks aren't home yet. You can just imagine everyone eating my dust.

Around the lake and down the road is a bar called Bauer's Dam. (it's right by the dam, clever huh?) Isaiah and I biked there on Sunday night and I got him a Kiddie Cocktail and he played a couple video games. As a souvenir he got a fishing cap. We had a great time.


I played my first full game of checkers and smoked Sally. Isaiah and Anna took turns on the paddle boat with me too.

Sunday night while on the pier Dad, Isaiah and I had a little visitor eyeing us. A muskrat swam past the pier while Isaiah was fishing and the little critter kept peeking up out of the water. He was pretty cute.

Isaiah spent nearly every waking moment fishing with either Gramps or Grammy. Anna too loves to fish. Anna seems to enjoy playing with the fish after they are out of the water, however. We "rescued" a few and threw them back in.

We're Having Babies

No, Matthew and I aren't having a baby, Mr. & Mrs. Killdeer are having babies. I'm so excited.

A few weeks ago I noticed when driving up our driveway that a Killdeer would repeatedly run away from our landscape rock and across the driveway, right in front of the car. I thankfully was paying attention and never hit either the male or female.

I wasn't entirely sure what they were doing in our yard as I was under the impression that they were a shoreline bird. There is a lake right across the road from us but our yard is not lakefront property itself. I had to look up the bird in my handy-dandy Wisconsin bird book and sure enough it was a Killdeer. I read in a short little blurb about their nesting habits that they frequently build their nests in rocks or along railroad tracks.

I watched them for a couple weeks and even though the landscape rock is between the driveway and the front yard where the kids play they were still sticking around. I started to investigate along the driveway in the grass and found nothing that looked like a nest. They seemed to get the most upset when we were near the rocks, however, so I started looking there on Tuesday and still didn't see anything. On Wednesday you'd have thought I won the lottery. I found two little Killdeer eggs just laying in the rocks. No nesting material of any kind just two pretty eggs. Yesterday I saw three eggs! Even though we make a ton of racket in the yard just feet away from their nest Mr. & Mrs. Killdeer are sticking around. I am so excited to be to see a wild bird's nest and potential hatchlings up close.

I was worried about our proximity and scaring them off but I've read they tolerate people rather well. Although either Mr. or Mrs. does a very good broken wing impression to lure us away from their nest.

Also, the Killdeer is about the size of a robin but it's eggs are twice as large. The Killdeer babies stay in the egg twice as long and are ready to go as soon as they hatch. Despite the fact that they are rather wobbly on their new legs. Unlike the Robin babies that are born blind and completely helpless. I've read that the Killdeer young at one day old are like that of two week old Robins. This is a photo of a mama Killdeer and one egg. It blends in beautifully with the rock but, man, is it a large egg!

I was wondering too about the fact that the nights are still rather chilly here and the birds aren't always on the nest. How's that going to work? I found out that they typically lay four eggs, obviously not all in one day. The parents will not start sitting on the nest until all the eggs are hatched. The first egg, although in the nest longer will not start to develop until the warmth of the parent gets it going. All four eggs will develop at the same time as a result. Because the babies will be ready to go when they hatch the parents must sit on the nest a bit longer. Once the parents sit the young won't hatch for about 24-28 days. I'll have to be patient and wait a few weeks yet before I have to start dodging baby Killdeer on my way home from the grocery store.

I received this information mostly from a really neat bird watching site that also had all of the neat photos. I am too nervous to take the photos myself so I'm borrowing their shots. They said the young Killdeer are rather cute to watch as they follow their parents around looking for food. They are unable to fly for a week or so, I'm hoping that means we are able to enjoy them all summer.

Isaiah's eyes lit up when I showed him I finally found the nest with the eggs. He's really interested

in watching the parents and he's being careful not to

bother them.

Anna too is rather protective of the nest as a friend was over last night and we showed him the nest and Anna piped up to add, "A-oh-ic (Eric) you can't get close to the nest or the Mama will yeave."

I sighed and thanked her for reminding us.

Well, that's the latest on the bird watching excitement. If all goes according to plan maybe I will be able to get a couple photos of our baby Killdeer after they hatch. I'll check the nest again today to see if there are four eggs yet. If so, the countdown will begin. I may even get one of those really neat blog timeline things that count down an important day or event. Do you think they have an appropriate counter for Killdeer hatchlings?

Backyard Wildlife

Matthew and the kiddos like to set out corn for the deer. They didn't show up at all last winter but about a month ago they started to come daily to the backyard corn piles. It's fun. Sometimes we can tell which group of deer they are. There were two mamas that would bring their fawns from last spring. We could tell which set they were. One set always came first and then the next mama would come in with her two babies.

We think the mamas have scooted last years babies "out of the nest" to maybe prepare for this year's fawns? These two deer are last year's fawns from one of the little family groups we were seeing. The doe isn't with them so we think they are just on their own and haven't separated yet.

Hoping they stick around and it becomes a family tradition to eat our corn. As long as they stick to the corn in the backyard and don't eat the corn that will be growing in the garden.