Ducklings day 51

Today, I feel like I’m being watched, and I watch shimmery feathers.

Everybody looking at me in the morning:

I feel like I'm being watched

Just waiting for their treats:

Treats

I was fascinated by the green feathers of a Rouen:

Green feathers

Or are they blue feathers?

Blue feathers?

Green feathers?

Green feathers?

Fascinating feathers:

Treats and blue feathers

By the way, the Rouens currently look like females, though I know they are both males. Apparently they only have the colorful plumage in spring; other times they have more female-looking feathers to blend in. Sneaky! Should be interesting to watch. I didn’t see that with Bert, as he stayed the Buff color year-round (though did get the characteristically male tail curl in spring).

Swimming for treats:

Treats

Treats

I feel like I’m being watched again; heads tilted to point an eye at me:

I feel like I'm being watched

Afternoon mealworms:

Afternoon mealworms

Flock Friday for July 24

This week will probably be the last Flock Friday without the new ducks — they should be out in the pond by next week. I plan to stop the daily duckling posts once they settle into their new routine, though may still have more frequent updates for a while, depending on how many interesting pictures I take; we’ll see.

Here’s Bert watching them:

Bert

You may recall that we have an inverted ceramic pot in the pond as a small island for the ducks. I wanted to make it a bit bigger, so got a spare wider pot to add on top. Here are my waders and the pot, watched by Bert:

Waders, pot, duck

Me in my waders and garden work hat:

David

Me in the pond, adding the pot; it’s not particularly deep at that point:

David in pond

The expanded island (the pond is looking very green at present):

Island

Another view of the island; it’s closer to the pond deck than it looks in the cam shot above:

Island

Sometime I’d like to make an even bigger island, since only two or three ducks would be able to fit on that one. Perhaps a floating platform or something. It’s fairly low on my priority list, since the ducks can sleep floating on the pond, but I’ll re-evaluate once the new ones are out.

Bert watching me, with the waterfall and filler hose going:

Bert

Bert on the island overnight; I like the eerie glow off the duckling pool from the night vision light of the camera watching it:

Night pond

In the early morning, you can more clearly see Bert on the island:

Night pond

A night swim:

Night pond

I hadn’t taken any chicken pictures this week, but I wouldn’t want to deprive the chicken fans amongst you, so I took some this morning. Here they are awaiting treats:

Chickens awaiting treats

Chickens

They got one of their all-time favorite treats this morning, cooked rice:

Chickens with rice treats

Chickens with rice treats

Chickens with rice treats