Ducklings day 45

Today, in addition to the usual duckling run pictures, I have some pictures from up the path, and from the pond deck, including a GIF.

Firstly, a cam shot of nighttime activity:

Nighttime

And sleep:

Nighttime

Treat time:

Ducklings

Water droplets everywhere:

Splash

Shall we swim?

Haven’t quite figured out gentle paddling yet:

Haven't quite figured out gentle paddling yet

Dunking head:

Dunking head

View from the path to the duck house:

View from path

Closer:

View from path

View from the pond deck; I have both the fountain and waterfall going currently:

View from pond deck

GIF from the pond deck, with a duckling visible in their pool:

GIF from pond deck

Not long before they’ll be out in the pond; probably sometime next week.

Cat update for week ending July 18

For this week’s Caturday: Porcini by the small pond, Pommie by the cabins, Bella and Poppa by the cat house, Poppy inside the cat house, and more.

A nice picture of Porcini watching me from between the cat house and small pond:

Porcini by small pond

Pommie toe beans:

Cat toes

Sleepy Pommie:

Cabin cat

And in front of cabins:

Pommie in front of cabins

An interesting silhouette of a cat jumping up the log pile, with lots of lens flare from the sunrise:

Silhouetted cat jumping

Double-decker cats:

Two cats inside

While doing rounds, I felt I was being watched:

Cat

An animated GIF of Poppa, Pommie, and Bella arriving, Poppa eating then sitting on the deck while Pommie ate, Bella rushing him then rolling around on the ground, then finally Bella chasing Poppa off:

Cat GIF

Pommie and Poppa:

Pommie and Poppa

A GIF taking a closer look at part of that sequence, where Bella rushed at Poppa, then sniffed him:

Cat GIF

Bella rushing at Poppa, while Pommie ate:

Bella, Poppa, Pommie

I was pleased that Poppa didn’t fight back, he just raised a paw in defense; it wasn’t a serious attack. Then Bella sniffed him in a friendly way:

Bella, Poppa

Bella, Poppa, Pommie:

Bella, Poppa, Pommie

Bella rolling on the ground below Poppa:

Bella, Poppa

Poppy spent most of yesterday inside the cat house:

Poppy

Here’s a GIF of her day:

Cat GIF

Ducklings day 44

Various pictures of the ducklings from this morning:

Ducklings

A funny GIF from the cam; one of the Rouens stepped off the ledge and seemed surprised to not having any footing, and rapidly paddled to get out:

Paddling GIF

Flock Friday for July 17

For Flock Friday this week, a bunch of pictures of our adult duck Bert, and a few chicken pictures.

Bert and Betty drinking water drained from the duck house:

Bert drinking

Bert with the ducklings, when I first added the kiddie pool (remember that?):

Bert with ducklings

Bert by my feet:

Bert by my feet

Bert

Bert by the duckling run, from across the pond:

Bert by duckling run from across the pond

Bert and ducklings from across the pond

Bert on the island:

Bert on island

Bert with ducklings on another day:

Bert with ducklings

Bert on the island from the pond cam:

Bert on the island

We gave the chickens some tasty slugs as treats, though they ignored them, at least while we were watching. Here’s Domino:

Domino ignoring slugs

Domino ignoring a slug

Sometimes an egg gets broken in a nesting box, which makes other eggs dirty. When we have plentiful eggs as now, I just toss the dirty ones, rather than laboriously clean them:

Dirty eggs

With warm weather in summer, I have the chicken coop windows open:

Chicken coop

Some chickens visible on the roost above the nesting boxes:

Chickens through coop window

Ducklings day 43

Shockingly, no modifications to the duckling run today. They’ll only be using it for another week or two, so it’s fine.

I mentioned yesterday that they swam in the afternoon. Here are a few cam shots from then, starting with three pairs of duckling feet on the edge of the pool:

Duckling feet

The shade does make the pictures less clear; the cam can’t handle the sunny and shady contrast as well:

Afternoon swim

This morning, treat time:

Morning treat time

Drinking water drained from when I just refilled their water dispenser:

Drinking water drained from house

Flapping wings; it’s fascinating watching the feathers growing, as little pins that sprout feathery bits from the end, spreading towards the base:

Flapping wings

Touching bills:

Touching bills

Splashes:

Splashes

Scratching:

Scratching

An afternoon swim today:

Afternoon swim

Flapping wings:

Afternoon swim

Converting the fountain into a garden, part 2

Last week I posted part one of a project to convert our fountain into a garden. Here’s the thrilling conclusion.

You may recall that I drilled a hole though the base of the fountain wall, and ran an irrigation tube across the bricks, at the back where it isn’t usually visible. To make that tidier and reduce the risk of tripping on the tube, I added a pipe cover:

Pipe cover

I added more soil:

Adding more soil

And scoria to the fountain bowl, to aid in drainage:

Adding gravel to bowl

Scoria and soil in progress:

Gravel and soil

More soil:

More soil

A much smaller soil pile; the remainder will be used in the veggie garden, and possibly elsewhere:

Smaller soil pile

Adding plants:

Adding plants

A hose valve for the tube to the top of the fountain (as seen on my What’s It Wednesday question and answer yesterday), to enable adjusting its pressure independently of the irrigation emitters for the bottom level:

Hose valve

Irrigation tubing; half inch tubing to the top of the fountain and down one side of the bottom level, with quarter inch tubing off the latter leading to emitters:

Irrigation tubing

An irrigation emitter; this style has an adjustable spread, so can cover anything from inches to several feet:

Irrigaton emitter

Pulling back a bit to focus on the plants:

Plants and irrigation

And back further to see more of the plants:

Plants

Another angle; Jenn chose the plants to be predominantly blue to evoke water, with some splashes of color representing fish. Plus taller plants at the back, shorter in front — and in the bowl, some that will trail off the edge nicely:

Plants

A last shot of the finished garden:

Plants

Ducklings day 42

I seem to do tweaks every day; today I added a tarp to the roof of the duckling run, to give them some more shade.

But first, morning treat time:

Treat time

Making a hole in the water again:

Hole in the water again

Splash:

Splash

Wings flapping:

Wings flapping

Like water off a duck’s back:

Like water off a duck's back

Four in the pool:

Four in the pool

I noticed that the ducklings tended to avoid the pool in the heat of the day, sticking to the shade of their house. So I attached a small tarp to the gate across the top of the run, using bungees, to make the run more pleasant for them:

Tarp

On the cam, I saw them using the run and pool after that, though I haven’t captured images of that yet. So I think they approve.

Video

Duckling spinning wheels

An extremely short video of a duckling rapidly paddling when stepping off the ledge in the duckling pool. Fun with sound!

Ducklings day 41

Today I did another minor tweak to the duckling pool, and they didn’t even wait for it to finish filling before they wanted to go in.

But first, sleepy ducklings just after midnight:

Sleepy ducklings

Morning ducklings, keen to get out. I can’t blame them — as they continue to grow, it’s getting rather crowded in there when they’re active:

Morning ducklings

My tweak was to add another couple concrete blocks, one in the pool as a platform to make it easier to get out or stand, and one outside on the right as an exit step:

Ducklings

They were keen to get to the treats, even though the hose was still filling the pool:

Ducklings

I filled it to the top today, giving them lots of depth for swimming and diving:

Ducklings

A splashy takeoff from the platform:

Ducklings

Making a hole in the water:

Ducklings

Wings flapping:

Ducklings

More flapping:

Ducklings

Ducklings day 40

As you will have seen in the YouTube video posted earlier, today I improved the steps into the duckling pool.

Here’s a GIF from yesterday of five ducklings in the pool, and flapping wings:

Swimming GIF

A still of those wings; still got more growing to do, but definitely looking more feathery every day:

Wings

Another shot of five in the pool:

Five in the pool

From the pond cam, Bert on the island, and me closing up the duck house last night:

Bert on the island, David at the duck house

This morning I brought a couple concrete blocks over to the duck house, and used them to make better steps for the pool, almost like a ramp:

Improved steps for pool

Inside the pool, I added bricks on either side of the steps, since they often want to get out somewhere other than the steps, and as a ledge to stand on:

Improved steps for pool