Friday, December 30, 2011

Alternative Winter Food Source

 

Poor ravens and crows have become so desperate for food because it’s been 30 days since the brown earth has been visible here, that they are willing to scavenge on our fresh goat and llama poo.

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This is the first time I’ve ever seen them do this, but of course, we’ve not had snow that has stuck around for this long either.

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New Mexico snow tends to melt after a few days, providing opportunities for wild animals to forage for food in between storms.

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Our smaller wild birds have been eating full time from our seed and suet feeders, but the ravens and crows don’t seem much interested in joining them. So, it’s goat and llama poo on the menu, at least until our snow melts away someday.

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10 comments :

Sherry Sikstrom said...

Huh? I guess they are getting what they need from it , but I am guessing they will be happy to see the snow melt too

clairz said...

I couldn't get over how much snow you had in the previous (very wonderful) post on photo editing. Good grief! Send it to New England, they don't recognize their weather this year.

Happy New Year, Lisa!

Leah Fry said...

Heck, our dogs consider it a veritable feast LOL!

Nuzzling Muzzles said...

The birds look like they are walking in a single-file line in the trenches. That's almost as funny as your pictures with the chickens all strutting out of the coop.

Mikey said...

Desperate times for wildlife, that's for sure. Finally we've got grass up, but a lot of our cactus has been damaged by starving bunnies. I feel bad for them!

Dreaming said...

We are finally experiencing some snow melt so hopefully our bunnies and birds will find enough without attacking our planted shrubs and trees (they can have all of the horse poop they want!)
I hope you get some warm sun, soon!

Once Upon an Equine said...

I saw a similar scene near our barn this morning. I'm not sure if the crows were picking at sunflower seeds that fell from a nearby feeder of if they were dining on some horse poo just inside the pasture fence. Your lucky birds get a choice between critter poos; yum, Llama for the entree, goat for dessert. Or is it the other way around? The snow is sticking here too and we're waiting for it to ever so slowly evaporate. Not much melting going on.

StefRobrts said...

Poor birds! BTW, I LOVE the picture of the single file chickens - makes me miss my chickens :)

The Equestrian Vagabond said...

HI RAVENS!
- The Equestrian Vagabond

DesertHen said...

Hope all of that snow melts soon!

We had no precip in December at all! Very odd for our area!