Humming Goats

Ada Lovelace Goat
We can all thank Fred Cohen, again, for these beautiful photographs. Our Nigerian Dwarf lady goats were not as cooperative as the chickens. The chickens posed so nicely for Fred, but the goats were too interested in the taste of Fred's shirt, pants, and shoes, and they wanted to be sure he could get _extremely close-up shots_ so they came in nice and close. Goats are masters of close-up.

I love these two pictures of my dears. They never do mean any harm, and their most insistent request, after food, is for a nice brushing. Tasha, especially, transforms under the loving strokes of a brushing.

Tasha Tudor Goat
We are expecting the first rain of the season, and the first rain for our new paddock and coop combo. We had one, hardly-counts, sprinkle during summer, and I am happy to say the goats instinctively knew to dash into their cottage. I honestly never see them go in, otherwise. Chickens never do seem to mind rain, but cold and wet hens cannot be happy, especially at night, so I need to tweak a few things for the cottages... a little winterizing.

Besides immortalizing our chickens and goats, Fred came to see the Hummers. And what he shared is a wonderful gift. I watch our hummingbirds, and they are enchanting to see, but I realize I have not really seen them. They flit, they flurry, they move around in a dazzling whirr of colors... that magical display of structural colors. Thanks to Fred's pictures, I can really see how beautiful those little birds are.

I think these first two images, of the same bird, nicely illustrate that a hummingbird's feathers are not pigmented. Where we see "red" or "green," it is not the color of the feather, but the reflection of light on microscopic structural features of the feather's surface. Alex, has explained this to me, but it's so cool to see it in these pictures.

See it? He turned his head, and it is like little lights turning on or off, we see more, or less color! Amazing!



"The camera captures light, our minds capture images."
~Anonymous

You do this exceptionally well, Fred. Thank you.