I put a handful of raw whole peanuts in a tray for the wild birds every day. The Steller’s Jays and Scrub Jays love them, hardly waiting for me to leave before diving down and grabbing one or two. They take them elsewhere to open and eat; we find peanut shells under trees all over the homestead.
More duck(ling) names
Back in July I did a post titled “Duck(ling) names”, where I included one picture of the previous batch of ducklings, soon before they went into the pond for the first time, and gave information about their breeds and the names we chose for them.
I’ve been meaning to do that for the six new female ducklings too. So here we go.
As you may recall, there was a mystery about the breed of the duck in the foreground of the following picture. Turns out, she is a “Silver / Splashed Swedish” duck, a less common variation. (Information from the hatchery, and replies to a Reddit post I made; see that for more info.) Not what was expected, but these things happen. I mentioned before that one of the followers of this blog called her Sassa; we like that name, so that is what we’re going with. She will join the Blue Swedish Sven and Sonja.
The other duck unlike the others is the Khaki Campbell, the little brown duck in the center. Our older Khaki Campbells are named Clyde and Cora, again following the convention of naming with an initial letter for the breed, and name from the region of origin. So the new one is named Clara.
Finally, we have four Rouens, which we are naming Rosa, Roxy, Riva, and Ruby. Their male counterpart is Rémy. Though we’ll probably continue to just call them the Rouen girls, since we can’t tell them apart (yet, at least).
More ducklings day 48
Since Jean mentioned it, here’s a GIF of me shoving Gimpy yesterday. Or more charitably, gently introducing a reluctant duckling to the concept of swimming, in a safe environment. Yeah, that sounds better:
The ducklings this morning:
Today I introduced them to mealworm treats; they weren’t too sure about them at first, but I know they will go crazy for them in short order:
Hanging out in the duck house:
Rouen close-up:
And the Khaki Campbell:
ChickenGuard pop door opener demo
I recorded this video to show ChickenGuard’s customer support the issue I’m having with the opener on my new chicken coop (three years old, to be fair). It is having a door jam error when closing, requiring recalibration, but works once done, until nighttime when it is supposed to close.
I thought others might find it interesting too, to see how the coop pop door opener works, and the innovative way I have it mounted on a door so I can access it from inside the coop, and have the cord go straight down from the opener to the pop door.
More ducklings day 47
Today: a mystery, shoving a duckling, showing off feathers, and another GIF summary of 75 pictures. Yep, I took a lot today. But first, here are 13 pictures of note.
A Rouen showing off her wings:
This duckling, who we nickname Gimpy after her dodgy leg, but one of my blog readers more charitably calls Sassa, I thought was a Blue Swedish when I got her. But as she grew her feathers I had my doubts about that — she doesn’t look like the other two Blue Swedish, Sven and Sonja:
For one thing, she has yellow feet, when theirs are black… and her feathers are mostly white, though rather grimy, since she has never gone for a swim as far as I’m aware:
So if she isn’t a Blue Swedish, what is she? Based her coloring, I think maybe Pekin? If you have more experience with ducks than me, please let me know! I have queried the hatchery I got them from to see if they can help.
A dusty Rouen having just chomped part of a leafy treat:
Another leafy treat:
Water droplets, and more feather growth:
Green feathers:
The mystery duckling having a drink from the edge of the pool:
Since she hasn’t shown any inclination to swim, and I was sitting right there, I took advantage of that opportunity to introduce her to the concept in a less graceful way: I shoved her in. Not nice, perhaps, but she’s going to be in the pond in a few days, so I wanted her first swim to be somewhere she can easily get out:
She flailed around and complained, unsurprisingly, but did fine:
After about 30 seconds she hopped out, and spent ages preening, which will be great for spreading her waterproofing oils. Maybe she won’t be quite so grimy now, though probably needs more than one swim to get cleaned up:
The Rouens showed her how much they enjoy swimming:
A Rouen showing off her wings again:
The GIF of all 75 pictures taken today, if you want more duckling pictures in your life:
(A question: do you watch these summary GIFs? If you do, would you prefer I include all photos, including the ones highlighted above, or just the ones I don’t include above? And is the speed of one picture per second good?)
More ducklings day 46
Not sure exactly which day I’ll let the ducklings out into the pond, but it’ll be coming up soon; maybe Wednesday?
Here they all are:
Leafy treats, watched by Betty (and she snuck one out of the pool, too):
Trying to reach a leaf under the gate:
Snagged by Betty:
A view of the run and older duck food dish from outside:
Feathers growing; her feather growth is my main indicator of readiness, being the least mature of the ducklings:
Hanging out on the steps:
In the doorway:
Sleeping on the edge; not sure she’s actually asleep, but that’s the posture they take when sleeping:
Hungry hummingbirds
I just refilled the hummingbird feeders, so the one by the house was still swaying, but that didn’t put off a hungry hummer. Plus more on the other feeder.
Cat update for week ending September 26
It’s now fall, and the trees got a head start. The rainy weather over the past week was most welcome, to help tamp down the nearby wildfires (which are getting under control, but still not completely out; I’ll do an update about them some other day).
This rainy weather makes the feral cats want to stay home, snuggly and warm in their heated cat house and cabins. So brace for some snuggly cuteness. I am including a summary GIF of 45 pictures captured this week at the end, like I did for yesterday’s Flock Friday. But here are 17 I particularly liked.
Poppy looking happy in a sunbeam on the cat house deck, while another eats:
Porcini and Poppy snuggling inside the cat house:
Porcini watching me while I attend to the small pond:
As mentioned in my flock post, I’ve been going out around dusk to close up the chicken coop; one day I went after dark, and saw some eyes on the driveway, which was a cat watching me (I often see the cats watching me from a distance):
Pansy in the back of the shop:
Poppy and Porcini in their house again:
Porcini, a twin, and Poppy:
Cabin twins (Pommie on the left, Spud on the right):
Poppy, Bella, and Porcini (I always list them left-to-right):
Poppa:
Porcini having a bath:
More Porcini and Poppy snuggles:
Screenshot of cams with five cats; two in the cabins, three in the house:
Porcini looking out the window:
Can you stand more snuggles of this level of cuteness?
Stretch:
The aforementioned GIF of all 45 pictures captured this week:
More ducklings day 45
Last night the maintenance door of the duck house didn’t latch securely, and a duckling pushed it open when squeezing past the waterer.
Here’s a GIF:
They quickly took advantage of the opportunity to head out for more swimming:
I saw them on the camera, and went out again to close them up properly when I closed up the chicken coop.
This morning (and all day) has been rainy, which is fine with them:
Swimming:
A Rouen playing with the bungee that holds the door open (in addition to the brick, which stops it banging in the wind):
Splashes:
Looking at me from the tray pool:
Flock Friday for September 25
A big Flock Friday today, with 33 photos of ducks and chickens, plus a GIF with those and 31 more at the end, as if 33 weren’t enough. But I took lots of nice shots of the ducks, so wanted to share them.
Firstly, via the pond cam from while we were evacuated, a wild duck visitor:
Our ducks with the wild duck visitor (left); much smaller than ours:
The ducks discovered the other upturned pot islands in the pond:
Ducks eating:
When we got home from our evacuation, I collected eggs. Several under broody Martha:
And a bunch in another box:
That would be about one day’s worth in the peak of summer, but they are slowing down for fall, so are from several days. Currently they’re down to about 5 eggs per day.
Chickens waiting for treats:
Yay, rice treats:
We let them into the veggie garden while evacuated (after our mid-evac visit), and they denuded the kale, except for the high leaves out of their reach, though left most of the pumpkins and tomatoes:
I’ve continued to have issues with the ChickenGuard pop door opener on the new chicken coop:
So have had to go out to the coop each night to manually close the door. Here are the four chickens that prefer the new coop at night:
From outside (on another night):
Back to the ducks, with a bunch of pictures; the males are putting on their colorful feathers now, so they’ve changed a bit since you last saw them:
GIF of ducks during a rainy night:
Betty has been hanging out in the grasses, maybe thinking of nesting, though a bit young for that:
Here’s a GIF summary of 64 photos from this week, including the above and a bunch more:
