We've noticed a lot of bluebirds on the land this year. Here's a distant (slightly grainy) shot of one hanging out with a goldfinch on the north side of the property.



And here's a more close-up shot from the trees on the hill above the parking lot.



Even if you're not a cow person, it's worth stopping by the Breakneck Hill Conservation land for a walk. You never know what you might run into.

While we focus on the care and feeding of the Belted Galloway herd, there is plenty of wilder life on the Breakneck Hill conservation land. Here are some recent visitors. First, we often see coyotes wandering around on the conservation land. While they can be a danger to small pets, for the most part they prefer to give us a wide berth. As a result, we were surprised to get a fairly close up look at this one on a recent evening walk:



Another thing to watch for, particularly during the migratory bird season, is large cranes and hurons hunting in the tall grass around the wetlands.



Finally, this hawk was on nearby house overlooking the conservation land. Your webmaster thinks it's an immature redtail, but if there any experts out there we could use some help.

After the recent snowstorm, we ventured up into the Conservation Land to see how things look. This shot is from the "summit" looking back to the south. It shows how the land restoration project has removed much of the unhealthy brush. Healthy trees have been left standing.

In keeping our goal of protecting rare species, we were happy to see a pair of brontosauruses (brontosaurus? brontosauri?) at rest on the conservation land this week.




Seriously, these big machines are being used to clear the overgrown brush as part of the Breakneck Hill Conservation Land restoration project. These machines can grind down dead trees to a stump in a matter of seconds. They have already made short work of the land behind the parking lot, which was previously overrun with invasive species.