Zora Gets Pinned

Zora does not like being touched. Fingers are for stepping on, not for scritching or any other crazy idea we might have. So when her head and neck if full of pin feathers and she just looks like a little hobo bird we have to pin her down and give her some well meaning scritches, and boy does she let you know that she is not happy.

*please ignore the overly fuzzy husband, we had a window of oppertunity here and we/he grabbed it.*






There really has to be an easier way to do this. Something just a tad less traumatic for both bird and human.




She is soooo not happy here.

The house of the sick

Good news, Gunnar is feeling better. No accidents for 2 days (from him at least) and it seems that the rice is working. This of course is not counting the ton-o-grass he munched this morning and promptly puked up.

Now the bad news, seems Scarlet has the runs, so off the kibble she went today and onto the rice and broth. Hopefully this helps her a little faster since I am not waiting like I did with Gunnar.

Of course a house with 2 sick dogs is just not enough of a challenge for us, so I have a case of the cruds as well. I am running a slight fever, enough so that I want the house not at the 72 that it is but at a nice crisp 60 or below. The key here is I want it like that but birds and husbands over rule me on my present thermostat desires.

Weekend

We have gotten next to nothing done this weekend. Gunnar is still sick, and this "sick" has coincided with a new bag of dog food so we are thinking that that might be the issue.

He will be on boiled rice and broth for the rest of the week and if he is still having issues on Friday, (when we get paid) he will head over to the vet to see whats going on.

To say I'm worried is an understatement, I always worry, about everything. This though, has me almost panicked. I am not liking what I am seeing and all I can say defiantly is that it's not Parvo. Thank goodness.

Sick as a Dog

I have a new reference for that phrase now. Gunnar was ill last night, not puking ill, that would have been better actually. Nope his sick was all about the other end.

Imagine if you will a 80 pound boxer running past you at super speed, his face over wrought with anxiety with a fountain of dark brown sludge propelling him. =8O

Oh yea, it was a fun night. Of course this happens at midnight so trying to keep him outside wasn't happening. All he did was bark and whine and that wouldn't be put up with for long by the neighbors.

He's doing better today, back to his old non-fountain self. Thank goodness.

Wild Front Yard

Apparently since I did not visit a lake this weekend to see the birds, they decided to come to me. XD







The house was really quiet then all of a sudden the birds started flipping out, then the dogs. When I got to the front room this flock of Ibis were scouring the yard for insects.





Eat up and be merry I say. I am not a huge fan of bugs myself.






It was pretty cool that they never flinched as I opened the front door to take these pictures. They just walked around and grabbed all the bugs they could find.

Easter Weekend

No bird pictures this weekend, instead I am going to show off my beautiful niece in her beautiful birthday dress.






Isn't she pretty! Now all she needs is a pair of heals and she's ready for a school formal. XD

Fun Day

To day is going to be a fun day. How do I know? Because since my husband has left for work the birds have been talking and talking and talking in ways that has me giggling like a mad woman.

Echo: I love you
Kenya:*wolf whistle* I love you toooooo!
Duke: Hello
Kenya: Helloooo Stink-ER!

This has been repeating over and over again with small variations on the theme. For instance Kenya saying "Hello Echo." Followed by "You Stink-ER!" She really emphasizes the er part in Stinker.

Lake Mirror Revisited

Our last visit to Lake Mirror was bitter sweet. There were a lot of birds around and I got some pretty nice shots but there was a little bit of sadness to go along with it. But lets start with the pretty and happy stuff shall we.

First is another panoramic of Lake Mirror from the other side of the lake.

Preeeeetty.

I was really fast on the draw with my camera to get this shot of an Anhinga swimming/fishing. They are quick!

At first I thought this was a GBH (Great Blue Heron), but it is way to small. I don't think it's a juvenile either because there is just something not right in it's shape. So I shoot this over to our resident wild bird expert, Sara, for the "What is it?" answer.

A beautiful Snowy Egret. My first sighting of one too. :D

And boy was it skittish! I actually got a shot of it flying away..

and flying back when I moved off.

Another shot of the mystery bird.

Another question for Sara, is it a Cormorant or an Anhinga?

The main reason we went back to Lake Mirror was to check up on the ducklings. When we found them my heart broke and it was everything John could to to keep me from rounding them most of them up and bringing them home.

The first thing I noticed was that we went from 20 ducklings to 11. :(

They were so hungry they ran for us begging for food. I noticed some scampered up the hill with ease and others, couldn't make it out of the water.

I moved closer to the shore line. I rarely tempt fate like this because I am a major klutz, but I needed to get a closer look.

You can't really see it here but we discovered that quite a few of the ducklings had lame/broken legs, including their mother.

Here you can see the one on the left has a bad leg. My heart was breaking watching him try and get food before the others gobbled it up.

As I tried to give as much food as I could to the ducklings a momma mallard showed up with her healthy little brood.

John went over to them with some food to keep as many of the birds over by him while I concentrated on feeding the hurt ducklings. If you look carefully you'll see a turtle getting in on the action.

These are the lake bad boys. These are the two male Muscovy Ducks that have been harassing and attacking the ducklings so that the mothers will come back into season. Apparently when Momma duck tried to intervene he went after her and broke her leg in the process.

Of course like every other town in America, our parks and lakes are under the control of gangs. The gull gang here is also partly responsible for the conditions of the ducklings. Their aggressive food theft has had them running over ducklings in a mad grab for bread.

They have totally taken over this "outlook" area. They just stared at me like I was totally intruding on their space. Which I was and they were totally unafraid of my presence. I got pretty darn close too.

So that was my sad, sad weekend at the lake. I know when we go back we are going to stop at the feed store right across the street and pick up some really good food for the ducklings.