Pond

Flock Friday for April 24

For this week’s flock update: funny ducks, broody chickens, mucking out the coop, chasing the heron.

Gert peeking at me from under the pond deck:

Duck

The ducks greeting me on the back lawn:

Ducks

A view from the pond deck of the ducks and fish; I’m now feeding them from there on evening rounds, since it’s easier to see the fish from there. By the duck house is closer to the water, but the more acute viewing angle plus the angle of the sun reflecting off the water makes it harder to see into the pond:

Ducks and fish

I put a second camera into the old coop, to watch the broody chickens:

Camera

Here’s the view from that camera, showing a broody chicken emerging from the nesting box:

Broody chicken emerging

All three of the broody chickens out to eat:

Broody chickens out

And going back into the box:

Broody chickens back in

Three broody chickens:

Three broody chickens

Me mucking out the coop, scooping the dirty bedding to dump in the compost:

Mucking out coop

Adding fresh pine shavings bedding:

Adding fresh bedding

An animated GIF of a full day in the old coop, at half hour intervals:

GIF of a day in the old coop

Me hand-weeding by the pond. I spray weeds around the property, but don’t want to spray where the ducks frequent, so every day on my morning rounds I pull a few weeds, to keep it somewhat under control:

Weeding

Paladout by the pond:

Cat by pond

Broody chickens again:

Broody chickens

10 eggs in a nesting box; we’re currently averaging about a dozen a day, usually split between one box in each coop. Chickens like to lay in the same box as other chickens lay, so whichever box the first chicken lays in, the others also use. Usually the same one every day, but sometimes they change:

Eggs

The chickens in their run, watching me and the ducks outside:

Chickens

The ducks next to the pond:

Ducks

Greeting me on the lawn again:

Ducks

Following me from the chicken coops to the pond:

Ducks

You may have seen this GIF of the ducks running after me on my personal blog:

GIF of ducks

Once we reached the duck house, I gave them their treats:

Ducks

The heron landing:

Heron landing

I went out there to chase it off, before it could eat more of our fish; here’s a GIF of the heron taking off:

GIF of heron taking off

Just now, we saw the ducks on the driveway next to the veggie garden; the furthest we’ve seen them from the pond:

Ducks

Flock Friday for April 17

For this week’s Flock Friday, ducks being cute, chickens being broody, and a heron eating a couple of our fish (grrr).

The ducks greeting me by the chicken coop again:

Ducks

Ducks and chickens

Chickens enjoying rice treats:

Chickens with rice

You may have seen this picture on my personal blog: the ducks on the temporary bridge over the pond waterfall stream:

Ducks on bridge

A GIF of the ducks leading me down the path:

Paladout walking in front of the camera by the pond:

Cat by pond

Five eggs in a nesting box in the new coop:

Five eggs in nesting box

And another five in a nesting box in the old coop; they’ve been averaging about a dozen a day recently:

Five eggs in nesting box

Martha is still being broody (and rather fluffy here):

Broody chicken

Buffy on the bin edge when I opened it to give them mealworms:

Chicken on bin edge

A GIF of a heron landing in the pond:

GIF of heron landing

A still image of the heron; such elegant birds (not!):

Heron landing

Another angle:

Heron landing

While the heron is interesting, it isn’t welcome, as it feeds on frogs and fish. This week, the heron caught two of our smallish fish.

Here’s a GIF of the heron catching a koi, I’d guess at least a couple of years old:

GIF of heron with fish

A still of that:

Heron with fish

And a second smaller koi:

Heron with fish

The ducks are always curious, but the heron chased them when they got too close (another GIF):

GIF of heron chasing ducks

When I saw the heron, I went out there to chase it off, but all of that was in less than five minutes.

Finally, there are now three broody chickens, all trying to fit in the same box:

Three broody chickens

Fountain garden stream

Now that the overnight temperatures are (mostly) above freezing, I’ve turned on the garden water, which means I could also turn on the pump in the small pond for the stream next to the fountain garden. It needs the water to be on to top it up via an automatic filler valve.

Here is the small pond; you can see the pump underwater, and filler valve on the edge (I might be modifying that soon):

Small pond

Going upstream a bit, the lower stone bridge:

Lower part of stream

Looking downstream, with the upper stone bridge in the foreground, the lower bridge barely visible through the tree, and the cat house in the background:

Stream and cat house

A couple more shots of the upper bridge:

Bridge

Bridge

Just beyond the bridge:

Stream

A GIF of the upper stream cascade (captured from a video):

GIF of stream cascade

And a closer GIF of the cascade (captured from a Live Photo):

GIF of stream cascade

A GIF of the upper falls pond, where the pump pipe ends with bubbling water:

GIF of upper falls pond

A static photo of the upper falls pond:

Upper falls pond

I hope you enjoyed this look at the stream. I’ll do the big pond waterfall in the future.

Friday bonus: koi and ducks

Some bonus pictures of the fish and ducks in our pond. The koi are starting to come out of hibernation, becoming more active as the weather warms up:

Fish

Fish

Of course, when I toss out fish food, the ducks scoop it up too:

Ducks and fish

Also, spotted a few of the smaller koi:

Fish and ducks

Fish and ducks

Fish and ducks

But wait, there’s more. Those pictures were from yesterday; today, I saw a bunch of the small koi (probably a couple of years old) and some of the older ones (about seven years old) amongst the grasses below the pond deck. I tossed in some fish food, which of course attracted the ducks:

Koi and duck

Fish and ducks

Fish and duck

Fish

Fish

Finally, GIF editions of a couple of those pictures:

Flock Friday for April 10

This week, we start with a GIF of frisky ducks, then a bunch more duck pictures, some token chicken pics, and finish with some misty ducks.

The aforementioned GIF (might take a minute to load):

GIF of frisky ducks

A frame of that GIF:

Ducks

Some more pictures of the ducks:

Ducks

Ducks

Ducks

Ducks

An aerial shot of the pond and ducks (see yesterday’s post for more):

Aerial ducks

Misty ducks:

Misty ducks

Chickens enjoying rice treats:

Chickens

Chickens

Chickens

Chickens

Back to the ducks, coming to see me by the chicken coop:

Ducks

Ducks

A duck feather:

Duck feather

Some early morning pictures of the misty pond and ducks:

Misty ducks

Misty ducks

The ducks walking past the camera:

Ducks

Too many duck pictures? They’re just such fun. I should try to get more pictures of the chickens, though.

Aerial pictures of the gardens, pond, greenhouse, mountain

It has been nice and sunny this week, so I did a little drone flying, and captured some more aerial photos.

Here’s our fountain garden area, with the bird feeders on the left, cat house under the tree at the top-left, various paths, and the defunct fountain (likely to become a planter soonish):

Fountain garden

A couple angles of the pond (with the ducks visible):

Pond

Pond

A bunch of new plants in one of our flowerbeds:

New flowerbed plants

A shot from 400 feet (the legal height limit for drones) of the flowerbeds, pond, veggie garden, hoop house, shop, etc:

Flowerbeds, pond, etc

The berry cage, veggie garden, and chicken runs:

Veggie garden

The greenhouse and environs:

Greenhouse

Closer to the greenhouse, showing the bee water pool and recent excavations for greenhouse plumbing:

Greenhouse

Looking more horizontally, some distant hills:

Distant hills

Trees and hills

Mount Hood is visible:

Mount Hood

Zoomed:

Mount Hood

Zoomed more:

Mount Hood

Flock Friday for April 3

This week, Rory with the ducks, broody chickens, and a new camera view.

I posted a similar (but different) picture to this one, of the ducks and Rory, on my personal blog:

Ducks and Rory

The ducks on the back lawn, with their heads in the grass, looking for tasty bugs:

Ducks with heads in grass

By the chicken run:

Ducks by chicken run

Ducks and chickens

Two broody chickens in a nesting box:

Chickens in nesting box

Gert on the “island” pot in the pond at night:

On island

You probably saw these two pictures of the ducks and Rory on my personal blog:

Ducks and Rory

Ducks and Rory

I moved the mobile cam from by the cat house to the (currently off) waterfall area of the pond:

Camera

A view of the pond and ducks from that camera:

Ducks

Gert with her head in the ground:

Duck with head in ground

Gert was curious about the camera:

Duck

Duck

Duck

And knocked it over:

Duck foot

So I moved the camera to a better location, closer to the pond deck:

Camera

A view from there; you can see the ducks hanging out below the pond deck, where they’ve been spending a fair bit of time:

Ducks below pond deck

I suspect Gert may be considering that location for laying eggs, though haven’t found any more yet.

Swimming past the camera:

Ducks

Ducks eating treats:

Ducks eating treats

Gert:

Duck

Bert:

Duck

Gert below the pond deck again, and Bert walking past the camera:

Ducks

Both ducks below the pond deck, and Paladout walking by:

Ducks and cat

The chickens in the old coop:

Chickens

Broody chickens again (still):

Broody chickens

A wider view of the broody chickens and others:

Chickens

The ducks walking by:

Ducks

Chickens roosting on potato planters:

Chickens roosting on potato planters

The ducks below the pond deck again:

Ducks

Ducks and a bird:

Ducks and bird

Flock Friday for March 27

This week was a busy one for the flock, with a possible first duck egg, me wading in the pond, broody chickens, and the heron and a flock of geese visiting.

An egg?!  Maybe!  We found this large broken white egg on the edge of the pond; it sure looks like it could be a duck egg, and I am expecting Gert to start laying about now. I have been looking most days for more, but haven’t found any yet:

Duck egg?

Duck egg?

On Sunday I waded into the pond with a large ceramic pot, to make a small island for the ducks:

Adding a pot to the pond

Adding a pot to the pond

The pot island:

The pot island

The main reason for doing that was that the ducks often perch on the pot that encloses the pump, but I also wanted to clean and turn on the pump, which would prevent that:

Cleaning the pump

Here’s the pump going:

Pump and ducks

A bunch of pictures of the ducks while I was standing in the pond:

Ducks

Pump and ducks

Ducks

Ducks

Ducks

Ducks

Ducks

Ducks

Ducks

Ducks

Ducks going into their house:

Ducks going into their house

I’ve seen the ducks sitting below the pond deck on several occasions; I’m wondering if that’s a possible nest location (nothing there yet, though):

Ducks below the pond deck

Let’s not forget the chickens. Here are some having dust baths in the veggie garden:

Chickens having dust baths

Enjoy it while you can, girls! Once the weather warms up enough for us to start planting, they’ll be evicted.

Refilling one of the outdoor waterers; it’s easier to do that in summer, when the garden water is on, but at present I have to turn on an underground valve for one of the pipes, which leads to this tap in the back lawn, plus the pond tap:

Refilling waterer

Domino laying an egg in a nesting box:

Domino in nesting box

You can see the leftmost egg still glistening, moments after being laid:

Domino in nesting box

The heron stopped by briefly:

Heron

An animated GIF of topping up the pond; you can see the water from the hose on the right, and the water level rising slowly (watch the pond edge):

GIF of topping up pond

Ducks following me down the path:

Ducks following me down path

Did you see my YouTube video of eleven geese taking a pitstop in our pond?

Here are some photos of that, starting with the geese landing (look in the upper-left corner):

Geese landing

Geese

Geese

Geese

Geese

The geese taking off:

Geese taking off

Finally, Martha is being broody again, hanging out in a nesting box; here she’s sitting on 15 eggs:

Martha in box