Cat update for week ending December 26

It’s Caturday!

A rare picture of Bella; she doesn’t hang around as much as the others:

Bella

A Steller’s Jay stealing some cat food spilled in the water dish:

Steller's Jay with food from water dish

Paladout, watched from the cat house:

Paladout

GIF of Porcini going out the back door:

GIF of cat going out back door

Poppy and Porcini:

Poppy and Porcini

Three cats:

Three cats

Porcini watching me from the window:

Cat in the window

Spud trying to sneak up on Porcini; she sensed his approach:

Spud and Porcini

Three cats:

Three cats

Can you see Porcini and Poppy? Watching me when I went to the cat house to refill their food:

Two cats

Here’s a closer look:

Two cats

Another day, I flushed them out again; Porcini on the rock, Poppy next to the tree:

Two cats

Poppy watching me:

Poppy

Video

Video: ducks flapping wings and having zoomies on the pond

Enjoy a minute of our ducks swimming around our pond, occasionally flapping their wings, zooming, and diving.

Flock Friday for December 25

Merry Christmas and happy holidays! It’s also a Friday, which means it’s time to peek at the flock.

Literally — peeking through the nesting box at a duck in their house:

Duck

Some ducks eating from the feeder tube:

Ducks

Rainy night ducks:

Rainy night ducks

Ducks on the lawn:

Ducks on the lawn

Several are sleeping, with their heads tucked against their bodies, while others are on watch:

Ducks on the lawn

Bert flapping his wings:

Ducks on the lawn

The chickens waiting to greet me in the corner of the veggie garden:

Chickens

Looking through the fence separating the new and old runs (there’s a chicken-sized doorway connecting them):

Chickens

Coming through that doorway to receive treats:

Chickens

Some closeups:

Chickens

Chicken

Chickens

Pictures of hummingbirds, some of which were previously posted on my personal blog, some new ones:

Hummingbirds

Scattering when the dog approaches:

Hummingbirds

On a rainy day, the chickens tend to hang out in the coops; here some are on the new roosts:

Chickens

A few hours later, the hummingbird feeder level is looking much lower; I had to refill it an hour or so after this:

Hummingbirds

Another day, the sugar water was partially frozen, due to subfreezing overnight temperatures; I haven’t put the heating pad on it yet, since it is warming up during the day, but probably will soon:

Hummingbirds

Stay tuned for a video from the pond, to be posted shortly.

Cat update for week ending December 19

It’s that most Caturdayish day of the week.

Plus some wildlife: a possum visited the cat feeder while there were a couple of cats inside the house:

Possum and cats

On that occasion the possum left without bothering the cats, but the following night it went inside the cat house; here’s a sped-up GIF:

GIF with possum

The cats aren’t too concerned about possums; they’re about the same size, and generally leave each other alone.

The following night, another possum encounter at the cabins (another GIF); the possum came face-to-face with Pommie, but backed off immediately:

GIF with possum

Porcini looking happy:

Porcini

A cat looking out a window of the cat house, with another on the deck and a third eating:

Cat looking out windoe

There was one downstairs, too; here you can see four cats:

Cat looking out window

Poppy and Porcini snuggles:

Cat snuggles

Pansy eating from her feeder in the back of the shop:

Pansy in the shop

Poppa spent the day in the cat house, along with Porcini and Poppy:

Poppa

Cabin twins, Spud and Pommie:

Cabin twins

Six cats, including Poppa and Paladout:

6 cats

Spud in the breezeway:

Spud in the breezeway

A GIF of a Steller’s jay and a scrub jay rooting through the leaves in front of the cat house:

GIF of birds

A still picture of them:

Birds

Flying away:

Birds

Finally, a screenshot of five cats:

5 cats

Flock Friday for December 18

Who wants to enjoy some pictures of ducks, chickens, and hummingbirds? You’ve come to the right place!

Earlier this week on my personal blog I posted a couple of pictures of our ducks on the duck house path, heading over the “temporary” bridge; here are a few more pictures from then:

Ducks on the path to the duck house

Their destination was the lawn:

Ducks on the lawn

A shot from a chicken coop cam of them settling down for the night:

Chickens

More pictures from that cam of them exploring the new roosts:

Chickens exploring new roosts

Ducks on the pond:

Ducks on the pond

Rainy night ducks:

Night ducks

A bunch of pictures of the chickens; some quite nice closeups this week:

Chickens

Chicken

Chickens

Finally, I posted some pictures of 11 hummingbirds yesterday; here are some more pictures of them:

Hummingbirds

Chicken coop extra roosts

In the new chicken coop, the chickens all roost above the nesting boxes at night, preferring crowding together on the higher roost over the more spacious main roosts — chickens prefer to sleep as high as they can at night, for safety, even though they’re safe in the closed coop:

Chickens roosting

(A rather old picture; I don’t have a more recent one, but they’re much the same every night.)

They get there either by flying directly from the floor, or from the main roosts; about the limit of chickens flying abilities:

Chicken coop

A GIF of flying from the main roosts, and knocking the camera off:

Chickens GIF

Here’s a wide-angle shot of the coop:

Chicken coop

To give them more options, and make it easier to get to their preferred roost, I decided to add more roosting bars to the coop, which I did yesterday.

I added two extra 2×4 roosting bars above the existing main ones, plus a third bar connecting the uppermost one with the nesting boxes (the other board on the right-hand side was only resting there temporarily):

Chicken coop extra roosts

That will let them hop from the floor to the two lower roosts, then up to the new front upper one, and either to the nesting roost, or to the uppermost one, where they’ll be able to look out that window, or the vent on the right-hand side when that is open in warm weather.

Here’s a closer look at the left side; you can see the existing lower roosts (with the poop tray below), the two new upper roosts, and the “bridge” bar from the upper one to the nesting box roost on the left, all assembled out of 2×4 boards and deck screws:

Chicken coop extra roosts

(Back when I built the coop, I used pneumatic nails for everything, but nowadays I’m a big fan of screws, and deck screws are great for working with 2x4s, as they are self-drilling and a more secure square drive.)

The right side:

Chicken coop extra roosts

Time will tell if they use those new roosts, but hopefully they’ll enjoy those additional options for high roosting and easier access.

Cat update for week ending December 12

Something new in this week’s cat update — Poppa went inside the cat house, and hung out for a couple of hours. Which was fine with our ferals.

(For those who don’t remember, Poppa is a male cat that may live at a neighboring property, who visits periodically. We call him that because he has similar markings to our ferals, and could well be their father for all we know, though it’s a common pattern. He gets on really well with our cats; they accept him almost like one of their own.)

Here’s Porcini and Poppa:

Porcini and Poppa

Cozy:

Porcini and Poppa

A couple more cats joined them downstairs:

Four cats

Poppa wanted to leave, but had to wait for the others to go, to avoid causing a scene by jumping down:

Poppa wants to leave

Cabin twins:

Cabin twins

Spud, Pommie, and Porcini:

Three cats

A cat in the house and another in the feeder as I approached to refill their food:

Two cats

A closeup of Spud:

Spud

The other one (probably Poppy) ran, and Spud wasn’t sure whether to run or stay (the cats tend to freeze when looking at them, then move when not… much like Weeping Angels):

Two cats

Porcini coming out of the cat house, and Paladout jumping onto the roof:

Porcini and Paladout

Spud about to jump onto the camera housing:

Cat about to jump onto the camera housing

A cam app screenshot showing five cats — two in cabins, two in the house, and one by the feeder:

Five cats

Pansy visiting the front of the shop for some of Pepper’s food, reaching in to pull some forward:

Pansy

Pansy on her heating mat in the back of the shop:

Pansy

Pansy on a chair:

Pansy

Finally, classic Poppy face:

Poppy

Flock Friday for December 11

Lots of nice duck and chicken pictures this week.

Starting with a cam shot of both — some chickens in their run, and ducks on the lawn in the background:

Chickens and ducks

A bunch of pictures of the ducks on the lawn:

Ducks

And on the pond, with some leafy treats:

Ducks

On the lawn again, another day; unusual for them to be left of the path (on the edge of the flowerbeds area) — they headed to the back lawn when they saw me coming:

Ducks

Several pictures of the chickens:

Chickens

It’s easy to get them to hold still and give me their undivided attention; I just hold a container of treats above the camera:

Chickens

They hadn’t touched the pumpkin I gave them a few days ago, so I cracked it open for them:

Chickens

Several pictures of hummingbirds; I shared some of these yesterday on my personal blog, but there are a few more here:

Hummingbirds

Finally, the ducks near their house early this morning:

Ducks

Cat update for week ending December 5

Come celebrate a curated collection of cat cam captures.

Plus some iPhone photos, like this one of the cat house on a misty day, with Poppa sitting on the deck:

Misty

Cabin cats:

Cabin cats

Feeder cats:

Feeder cats

A screenshot of my iPad cams app, showing three cats:

Cams

Breezeway Spud:

Breezeway Spud

The cams app again, with four cats this time (one about to jump onto the outside cam housing):

Cams

Pommie on the awning, Porcini and Poppy on the deck:

Three cats

Poppy, Porcini, and Paladout:

Three cats

Poppy and Porcini snuggling inside their house:

Snuggles

Poppy concerned with me approaching:

Poppy concerned with me approaching

Me refilling their heated water dish:

Refilling heated water dish

And refilling their food dispenser:

Refilling feeder

As usual, I tossed some bonus food on the ground out front, and as soon as I left, three cats turned up to enjoy hunting for it:

Three cats

A cat jumping down from a tree:

Jumping down from tree

The alien black cat was seen again by the cabins:

Black cat

Three cats in their house, a couple enjoying the heating pads downstairs (the rugs upstairs contain foil to reflect the body heat, but the ones downstairs are actually electrically heated; you can see the coils in the night vision):

Three cats