Avian ethnic cleansing takes a blue life

Tonight after our prairie walk we checked on our most advanced bluebird nest and had a sad discovery. The male was dead at the foot of the pole with the eggs scattered and broken around him. No, it wasn't a cat or even a snake. It was bird on bird violence. Ethnic cleansing in the avian world. He was pecked to death on the head and neck. Not a bite eaten. Nor any of the eggs eaten. Just destroyed and thrown out of the nest. 

There's green grass in our pasture and the horses are mighty pleased. But the prairie is dry and brown both on the hillsides and on the blufftops. If you were a horse or a bison back in the prairie days you wouldn't be here now. You'd be down in southern Illinois munching on the first shoots of prairie grass that won't appear around here until June or July. You can say what you want about prairie grass holding more nutrients over the winter or surviving the drought. Undoubtedly true. But if you're a horse or a cow and you live inside a fence and don't migrate, you will get very lean and hungry waiting for the bluestem to become green. We love prairie and we love horses and we don't mind living with some contradictions in our lives. The problem always comes from people who have to have things all one way or the other, whether that means religion or economy or politics. Contradictions might make you think you're going crazy, but too much uniformity and consistently is crazy.