Mopey hen and other birds...

Sundays just fly by round here, even rainy ones.  Up, late for me, 8am.  I'd like to lie-in, but I'm nervous/cautious of the dog now he's over 11 years old.  We've come down to the odd accident after 8.30am, and I don't like to chance it - not a good start to a morning really, is it?

So all fine downstairs, and I let the dog out, walked down the garden and let the hens out, back in the house, fed the dog, made tea and went upstairs to let Simon know the time - 8.20am, and he's usually out with his running group at 8.30am.....  it wasn't pre-meditated that I didn't tell him the time/wake him earlier, but I didn't get much thanks for letting him know either.

Washing machine loaded and on, breakfast at a leisurely pace, read a chapter of my book, dressed and Tom dressed, and as it was raining we set to and tidied Tom's room.  Knocked up a pan of leek and potato soup, washing load out, had lunch, and after humming and ha-ing decided to bite the bullet and walk the dog in the rain.  Forecast for heavy rain all day, so had to do it sooner or later.

Back home from dog walk, both of us soaked, towelled the dog, and then I thought I'd check on the hens, in particular the one in moult with the knitted jacket I'd made - to see how it was holding up in the rain.  Actually we'd noticed yesterday that it had developed a baggy gusset - she must have been pushing at it with her feet, but I was more concerned about the rain.

Turned out I was wrong to be worried about the rain. She'd managed to get the baggy gusset twisted round her legs somehow, impairing her walking, and worse, rubbing her legs on the wet wool, or the safety pins.  I was worried that she'd impaled herself, and as she was sheltering under the table which keeps the food dry I managed to catch her quite easily.

No. The safety pins were intact, but her wings looked rather raw as well as the legs, so I decided to take the jacket off. Some feathers have now come through, so she should be OK.  No. Wrong again. Funny things, hens.  Her companion had taken to pecking her.  I observed and it was obvious that this was more of a problem, not the jacket.  She had taken a pecking and her confidence was gone, so she was an easy victim.

I don't like having to do this, but I separated them.  Past experience has shown that when hens peck other hens it's a slippery slope if you don't act quickly.  Luckily I've got a rabbit hutch (no rabbits) which I use as my 'hen hospital'.  So I quickly gave it a spruce up, and with help from my daughter we moved her in.

Cup of tea, and the weather had brightened up, so I took the opportunity to sit at my kitchen window and observe the birds for the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch annual survey - see link:

http://www.rspb.org.uk/birdwatch/

From my kitchen window 2pm-3pm today I saw:  bluetits, great tit, long-tailed tit, robins, chaffinch, starlings, sparrow, blackbirds, great spotted woodpecker, wood pigeons and collared doves.  I didn't see our other usual suspects - magpie, greenfinch, goldfinch, bullfinch and jay. But I did have my camera - the woodpecker was incredibly camera shy, even through the glass, and wouldn't pose when feeding but I caught him a couple of times...

It's really not easy taking photos of birds through a kitchen window..... but I tried.

Nighty night.  Kat :)

Things that go bump in the night...

... the thump woke us both up.  I looked at my bedside clock.  The digital readout said 05:11.  Great.  What was that? I thought.  He went downstairs to investigate.  The dog remained silent.  Some guard-dog he turned out to be.  On his return he said the mirror had fallen off the wall and onto the sofa below.  It didn't appear to be broken, so it could wait until morning.  An hour later the alarm clock went off, and it was time for him to start the day.  Groggy, but not from alcohol, I turned over and dozed a little longer until it really was time to get up....

No.  Not the start of my latest American detective novel. This actually happened last night/this morning.  Luckily the mirror didn't break, as the sofa below had cushioned its fall, but it could have been very bad. It's a huge mirror.  Quite simple and modern in style, and can hang either way - full length it's probably 1m75cm by 60-70cm? and is surrounded by a maple frame which is very wide, say 15cm all round - so total size something like 2m x 90cm or so maybe, I suppose I should measure it, but hey-ho. It's big, and something that big falling off the wall in the middle of the night is a bit alarming, to say the least....

On closer inspection it appears that the two picture hooks it was hanging by(!) had, over time (quite some time, it's been in the same place for 6 years...), stretched, so they didn't point upwards any longer.  Hence the weight of the mirror, combined with the pounding the sofa takes with children bouncing on it, making the mirror rattle, and my nerves jangle, had accumulated the effect so that this event happened when it happened.

I've added another picture hook to the wall, and re-positioned the others and re-hung the mirror, and so far so good.  Watch this space, as they say.

Last month we had a couple of birds fly into the kitchen window.  It happens.  And when it does, it's a split second thing, the bang, the peripheral vision, the wait for everything to be allright.... And then the inspection below the kitchen window when after some time nothing happens, and you start to doubt yourself, to doubt your hearing, your periphal vision, your mind playing tricks again...  And you go outside to see is there a poor dazed bird lying there?  And there was.

dazed and confused ... I know how it feels!

So there was this poor juvenile thrush, clinging to the potted courgettes I'm growing below my kitchen window.  And there in the pot next to it was it's poor dead friend.  Must have broken its neck on landing badly.  Were they fighting over territory, or both avoiding a predator? We'll never know. My Mum shooed it away, and disposed of the body of the other one.  All part of life's rich tapestry...

Night night.  Kat.