Returning Migrants

In the past couple of weeks several of our resident summer birds have returned to the farm. When I was feeding the pigs yesterday I saw an indigo bunting and near the sheep I saw a pair of blue grossbeaks. The highlight was a painted bunting that sung from a persimon tree as I moved our sheep fences. In our farming we always try to balance the needs to control the environment with the wildness needed by our wild animals, especially nesting birds. On our farm this means brushy fence rows, fallow pastures, and errosion buffers near our streams and ponds. We seek to be farm that creates a good home for more than pigs, sheep, cows, and chickens--we want to create a good home for indigo buntings, road-runners, green tree frogs, spotted salamanders, garder snakes, and the thousands of other creatures that make their home at Adama Farm.