Dead Critters

Desert Horses was posting about the dead snake a raven dropped in front of her car. But I have a dead bird story. This is what hubby told me the other day after I came home from running errands. He was cleaning and refilling the horse water buckets. I say bucket loosely as they are a 55 gallon barrel cut in half. So about 25 gallons will fit in each one. Every once in a while we find we find a dead critter in the water barrel. We now have 2 barrels in each pen so we don't have to water as often and in case of the dead critters. Most of said dead critters are insects like flies, moths, butterflies, ladybugs, (which I try to rescue), centipedes, scorpions, bees, wasps, and caterpillars. These aren't to bad but the occasional rat, mouse, and bird and not much fun.
      Hubby said he was waiting for one bucket to fill when he saw our pinto pony, Traveler walk up to another barrel in the adjoining pen and reach in and pull out a dead bird. As if that wasn't bad enough the pony began to either try to play with the bird or was mad at it and was trying to make sure it was dead. Lee said he tossed it in the air and then picked it up off the ground and tossed it again about 3 times. By then hubby decided enough of that and yelled at Trave and then sprayed him with the water hose to make him drop the bird since he was now running around the pen with the tip of dead birds wing in his mouth. He dropped it and Lee was about to get to dead bird and get it out of the pen.
     It was a cured bill thrush which is about the size of a mockingbird. Fairly good size. First one we had found dead in water barrel. We have lots of them and they eat lots of bugs and fly larvae so we don't mind them. Usually the dead birds we find in water barrel are very young birds still with the yellow bills. But not late enough in the season for young birds yet and this one looked ground according to Lee.
 And back to dead critters I went to feed Star, one of my mares the other evening and there was something weird in her feeder. On picking it up I discovered it was half of a dead snake. Very dead as I think it had been cut in half by the hay mower and then flattened in the hay bale withe the hay. Yuck. I dropped it on the ground but had to pick up again and dispose of it as I didn't want Star eating near it.