Birds of a Feather – Flock Wherever

Mr Flowers seems to spend his entire day sneaking up on me, peering around corners, looking in windows, checking doors for lapsed latches.

I believe he is sending silent silent signals to me to throw more tiny tomatoes his way.

What is the name of the sound when you flick your tongue from the roof of your mouth to behind your teeth. It makes a clock clock kind of sound. as the tongue hits the floor of your mouth. This is the sound we send to each other when there is food. And if you make this sound really soft that s the sound Mr Flowers makes as he creeps up the steps to see what the cats have left him in their bowl on the verandah.

If I want to call him from afar I call ‘kneel kneel!’ in a high voice. But he is seldom far.

TonTon posed on his bed for you. Usually he is way under the deck on the front of the house overlooking the pond. It is his secret place! I think he is enjoying the cooler days and no – we are not mentioning the F word yet. I am not ready.

Quacker (the last duck) has been fully incorporated into the barn flock. I still have not found where she sleeps, it will be in the barn but she has hidden herself well which is good.

Like other solitary birds she has begun to lose her fear of me (influenced by the chickens who are fearless in their stupidity) and is often really close to my feet as she waits for a hand out.

Mr Flowers has almost lost all of his long summer tail feathers – these last ones to go seem to me like they would be amazing quills. They are strong and hollow. He is much more agile without the long tail feathers. On windy days he is pushed all over the place as the wind catches his long tail, so not having it for a wee while must be a bit of a relief. However every year they grow back longer so there is that to look forward to.

Wai’s skin has had a hard time this summer – the areas where he was burned the skin came back super thin and it peels in large swathes all the time – so now he is a pie bald pig with his bad spots covered in zinc. The fighting with Tima has worn some areas right down to open wounds (most of their fighting is push and shove with their shoulders) so those are covered in zinc also.

Every year we go through this but it seems to me that this year Wai is refusing to drop down to second pig – he is being very dominant. They will settle down but at the moment I am still separating them at meal times so they can take a break back in their corners.

And Wai needs a hoof trim!

Have a lovely day everyone!

Celi