Sights from around Crooked Acres.
Squirrel outside my window. Whatcha doin’, Mister Squirrel?
“Oh, nothing.”
“Just gonna climb down this branch…”
“And get me…”
“A little snack!”
“Which I will sit right here in front of your window and nom! Ha ha!”
I sent this picture to Fred and said “Look, a hawk eyeballing the chickens!”
Fred said “I’m pretty sure that’s a turkey buzzard, not a hawk.”
I said, “Look, a turkey buzzard eyeballing the chickens!” He said “I see that.”
(The dogs eventually roused themselves from their slumber and chased said turkey buzzard off to greener pastures.)
Playing with my long lens (it’s a 4.5-5.6/ 75-300. I don’t know what those numbers mean, but I do know that I can be a long, long way from whatever I’m taking a picture of and have it come out looking like I was RIGHT THERE with amazing detail.). This is a rooster.
This is the other rooster.
This is the Rock Star (she’s a Golden Polish). I’ve probably never told you that I think she’s the prettiest chicken we have, have I?
So so pretty.
She needs a haircut, though. We trim her head feathers away from her eyes so she can see better.
She doesn’t like it when we mess with her ‘do, though.
She prefers to stay fabulous.
Angry Muppet (white Silkie) is angry.
We chased the ducks out to the pond again last weekend. When we finally got them out there, they got into the water…
…paddled around…
…paddled around some more…
…drank a little water…
… said “Hey, that was yummy!”…
…said “Okay, we swam. Can we go HOME now?!”
And out they ran.
One of the males gave an indignant flap of his wings.
And back home they waddled.
“OH LOOK, WATER! WE WERE SO THIRSTY!”
But of course, words do not do the waddle justice. You’ve got to see it for yourself (sorry about the part halfway through when I start giggling and the camera shakes all over the place. But you’ll see why I giggled. They’re so funny when they waddle!).
On another topic, those of you who were horrified by these bugs I posted last week:
In case you missed it in the comments, those are ladybug larvae. I saw them again this week, and they’re clearly in the process of changing. This is to give you a better idea of their size.
They just looked so big last week because I was super zoomed in on them to get details so someone would be able to tell me what they were! I can’t believe I’ve never seen/ noticed them before.
Here’s a closer shot to how they look now. You can see they’re changing; they’re not quite to where they’ll be (and actually, as cold as it’s been the last couple of days, I wonder if they froze up and died instead of changing all the way), but they definitely look different than they did in the other picture.
Now that it’s gotten cold and the bugs aren’t as plentiful, the birds are hanging around the bird feeders a lot more. We get a LOT of Blue Jays and Cardinals.
Male Cardinals are brighter.
But I think the females are prettier.
We have a ton of Chickadees flitting around, but they flit so fast that I haven’t gotten a single decent picture of a single Chickadee, awesomely long lens or no. Maybe next week!
Patty hanging out on top of the bookcase in the front room, refusing to look at me.
Chuckles…
…giving me the bratty attitude.
“I really want to make some feral shelters to put out by the old coop so that any ferals who wander along will have a place to stay warm,” I told Fred. There’s the cat house on the front porch with the heated bed in it where Maxi can usually be found, and the little house on the other side of the front porch with the self-heating bed in it where Newt can often be found (though he more often comes inside -and if he looks particularly pathetic, Maxi will share her heated bed with him. He’s the only cat she can stand.), but both Newt and Maxi tend to be somewhat territorial, so if a poor lost/ dropped off cat needed some warmth, I feel that Maxi would probably chase them off.
Fred had a better idea. “What about the littlest coop?” he said. The littlest coop is the very first coop he built, way back when we had our original flock of 12 hens.
So he bought some straw and put it in the littlest coop, and he left the door to the coop open in case someone came along who needed some warmth.
And someone did. Joe Bob, to be exact.
“What? Am just making myself comfy. Isn’t that what this thing is HERE for?”
Silly Joe.
Smilin’ Joe.
Head scratch AND a chin scratch. Score!
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Previously
2010: Buster, to be exact.
2009: Those Wonka girls have some LUNGS on them.
2008: Something has disturbed the Delmar.
2007: Miss Stinky Stakes Her Claim.
2006: Want to meet the new babies? You know you do!
2005: No entry.