Chicks are safely stowed away

On August 1, 2009 By stefrobrtsIn chickensLeave a comment

Mom and the chicks are safely stowed away in the chicken tractor, which is now parked in the orchard. So they can enjoy the company of the other chickens, without all the drama of fighting over food, getting attacked by cats, and mom leading them on adventures into the yard with the dogs. Plus they have their own food and water so I can make sure the chicks get a good start eating chick food – because I think the big chicks were stealing most of it and they really don’t need it anymore.

I’ll add a pic tomorrow, we had to wait until dusk to make the move. Once Mom had taken the chicks into the coop for the night, we snuck in and I stole them out from under her one by one, and handed them to Dave who put them in a box. Then I picked up Mom and we carried them all out to the tractor. There was a bit of fussing, but last I checked they were pigging out on chick food, so I’m sure the excitement was already forgotten.

Bad kitty! Put that chick down!

On July 31, 2009 By stefrobrtsIn chickens2 Comments

This morning I was in the orchard throwing out chick feed for the chicks, and the chickens all came running, including Big Red, completely ignoring her brood of chicks lagging behind. When I heard a peep/squeek and looked up to see Mighty had sprung out of the bushes and pounced on one of the tiny chicks! Before I could get over there Mom ran over and kicked her, so she dropped the chick and ran by me on the way out, and I landed a swat on the butt as she went! What a bad kitty! Afterwards I couldn’t tell which chick she had caught, so hopefully it’s ok, but if one kicks off in the next few days we’ll know why. Tonight Big Red and the chicks are moving into the safety of a chicken tractor until the chicks are bigger than McNugget size.

Later I let the dogs out unattended, and when I went to check on them I saw Big Red had hopped out of the orchard (despite my attempts to keep them fenced in) and Barclay had been chasing her around. She can only get in and out by hopping over the gate, so he was blocking the gate. I got him out of the way and she jumped back into the orchard, but unfortunately whatever fun he had before I arrived has him all wound up to chase chickens. I did have him trained to ignore them, but that’s all forgotten after a little chicken chasing .

Chick overboard!

On July 25, 2009 By stefrobrtsIn chickens1 Comment

Last night I came home and heard a loud ‘peep peep peep’ coming from the orchard. I hurried down to see one of Reds little chicks IN THE WATER BOWL! He was up to his fuzzy little butt, and he couldn’t jump back out, so he was peeping for help. Funny thing was, all the chickens were ignoring him, even Mom who had taken the other 9 chicks over to the chick feeder. Lot of help they are! So I went in and rescued him (he had no problem with this, he seemed glad to be picked up), and dried him off a bit on my shirt then took him over to Mom. I leaned over and showed her what I had in my hand and she fluffed up like ‘hey, that’s one of mine!’, so I put the chick in front of her and it ran over to rejoin the other chicks and they all went off about their business. Then I put a flat rock in the water bowl so if anyone falls in again they should be able to get back out. Poor little chick!

Big Red and her chicks

On July 24, 2009May 29, 2018 By stefrobrtsIn chickensLeave a comment

I spent about 45 minutes sitting in the grass watching Red and her chicks yesterday afternoon.

Baby chickens are amazing! shortly after hatching they are walking around and scratching for food. Not like other birds where the parents have to bring them food, chicks are ready to go.

Mom was scratching around for bugs, and they would all rush to see if she found anything. She would sometimes step right on a chick, or bury them in debris if they were standing behind her. I guess that teaches them to stay out of the way!

And they’re SO CUTE!!!!

Last time Red hatched the eggs I gave her after she turned broody, so she hatched a bunch of buff orpington babies. This time she saved up her own eggs and hatched those. So these are all Red crossed with Big Bird (the Buff Rooster we had). They all have a little smudge on top of their head, and a dark streak behind their eyes, otherwise they look just like the baby buffs did. It will be interesting to see how they look when they get their feathers.

It was warm and sunny, and the chicks were getting sleepy. Occasionally a lone chick would start to tip forwards, and it’s eyes got heavy…

until it was completely tipped forward with it’s beak on the ground 🙂

Some managed to nap sitting up

Noctilucent Clouds

On July 24, 2009May 29, 2018 By stefrobrtsIn Uncategorized1 Comment

Are these Noctilucent clouds?

I’ve read about these clouds several times in the astronomy related newsletters I subscribe to, and I think this evening we got a rare showing of them! I walked outside to play with the dogs and I looked out at the sunset and saw these beautiful, whispy, ice-blue clouds in the East.

Sunset was already pretty much over and the stars were already out in force, yet these clouds were brightly lit. Whatever they were, they were beautiful, with incredible texture. I wish I had had a tripod handy (and my old camera) so I could have gotten a longer exposure. As it was I tried some different setting on my little point & shoot to try and capture these strange night-time clouds.

The return of Big Red

On July 23, 2009May 29, 2018 By stefrobrtsIn chickens3 Comments

This morning I was out playing with the dogs and the chicks were making quite a fuss, peeping and all. I went to see what was up, and saw a flash of red..there’s only two red chickens in my coop, and one of them is in the brooder sitting on golf balls right now.

Yay, it’s Big Red! She has returned, and she brought a whole herd of little peeps with her! 9 or 10 by our count. They’re really hard to count, they follow mom around like a cloud!

Barclay pointed out the empty eggshells in the nest. So here’s the funny part – the nest is in the backyard. In the overgrown old garden. No more than 10 feet from the chicken pen, the water trough, and the gate to the orchard. In other words, this whole time she has been sitting on her eggs literally under our noses! How come the dogs never bothered her? They must have known she was there, but she wouldn’t run and flap – she probably just fluffed up and hissed at them, and the dogs backed off. Even when our friends visited with their dog Sam, who chased the rooster around the garden, she was right there in the middle of it not budging off her eggs – what an amazing Mom! Now, how did she lead that little troupe of chicks from the backyard back into my carefully secured chicken pen?

Glad to see everyone is home and safe!

Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge

On July 23, 2009May 29, 2018 By stefrobrtsIn hiking, outdoors1 Comment

For our Wednesday hike we headed out this morning to the Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge, a huge sanctuary that runs along the Washington bank of the Columbia River. The refuge is a great place to hike, there are only a few trails, as most of the property is off limits to prevent disturbing the wildlife, but the views from the trails are excellent and there are lots of interesting things to see.

We started up on the Carty Unit at the Oaks to Wetlands trail. It begins with an impressive arched footbridge taking you over the busy amtrak rail line.

And after a couple hundred yards you get your first view of the refuge over Duck Lake – beautiful!

Along the way you pass the Cathlapotle cedar plank house. This recreation was built in 2005 as part of the celebration of Lewis & Clark’s 1805 expedition when they met locals living in these kinds of houses.

The Oaks to Wetlands trail is a two mile loop which reached Boot Lake at it’s far end. This ‘green field’ is Boot Lake. That’s aquatic plants all the way to the far tree line.

Unfortunately our plan to hike a wetlands trail in the middle of summer was not well thought out. We were immediately beset by a cloud of hungry Boot Lake mosquitos who persued us all the way back to the car!

Along the way we stopped at a neat rocky overlook and saw this beautiful bird, I think it’s a Great Egret, perched high up in a tree.

After we double-timed it back to the car, we headed down to the River S Unit of the refuge to do the four mile driving loop. You can also walk this loop in the summer, but after our little escape from the mosquitos neither of us felt like taking the chance. So we drove.

River Otter, Muskrat, Nutria? I can’t tell…

An osprey!

Along the way you can park and go to a blind that looks out over Rest Lake. There were a lot of herons out there, some of them fighting and gliding around. Lots of smaller birds as well. It would be a great place to have a spotting scope.

Dave at the blind

This was a really neat trip, and we’ll go again, but maybe after mosquito season is over!

Silk Paintings

On July 21, 2009May 29, 2018 By stefrobrtsIn art1 Comment

Sorry for the bad picture, it’s hard to take a picture of a picture.

We don’t have a lot of artwork around the house. One of the few pieces that really means something to me is this beautiful Japanese silk painting, at least I think that’s what it is. I know it’s on silk. It was my great grandfather’s, and then my grandfather had it in his room, and then after he passed I asked Grandma if I could have it. I had always loved it, and could spend hours gazing into it and wondering who lived in the houses and where the boats were going.

It had spent many years in a cheap wooden frame, pressed up against the glass, and a few years ago I noticed the paint was sticking to the glass in spots. So I took it to a frame shop and had it archive framed with acid free paper and all that.

Today we spent our day off downtown, had lunch, and then went to the antique stores, and I saw this:

Another vintage silk painting! It’s not as colorful or detailed as mine, but for $20 I had to have it. There is something about paint on silk, it is beautiful, it almost glows. Someday I’ll have to have this one re-framed to match the other and display them side by side. I was just so surprised to see another old silk painting. I love it!

An owl!

On July 19, 2009 By stefrobrtsIn Uncategorized1 Comment

Last night I stepped out the back door after dusk to do something, I don’t remember what, and I was surprised when a big bird flew out of the cherry tree, which is about 30ft off the back deck. I immediately recognized it as an owl because it was BIG, much bigger than the crows who usually hang out there, and it made no noise flying. It flew across the backyard and landed in one of the fir trees along our back property line. These are young fir trees, maybe only 20ft tall, so they barely held his weight. I got a good look at his sillouette against the darkening sky. Then I looked down and noticed Mouse was stalking towards him! What an idiot! Not only was he 20ft up in a tree, but he was bigger than she is! He decided he was getting too much attention and took off and silently flapped across the pasture and dissapeared into the darkness. We have seen a few owls, and occasionally heard them, but this was the most interesting encounter yet!

Big Red is still AWOL

On July 18, 2009 By stefrobrtsIn chickensLeave a comment

Big Red is still missing. I’m fairly confidant that she is hiding somewhere hatching eggs. My main concern is that now that I have secured the chicken orchard, she will show up with a clutch of chicks following her and NOT be able to get back in with the other chickens. And of course if I let the dogs out and they find her with a batch of chicks – well, the results could be tragic.

The orchard is big, she could be in there somewhere, holed up in the blackberry bushes maybe. We’ll just have to see what happens.

In other news, I was watching the baby chicks, and I think only 3 or 4 of the 9 chicks are roosters – that will mean a lot more eggs next year!