Mr Flapper Duck

Fancy Feathers

choo
Chewy took a bath in the tree trunk pool today, and then showed off his feathers as he preened them.

first
First he got some oil from his oil gland on top of his tail.

wing
Then he spread the oil onto his long wing feathers.

some
Some feathers were hard to reach, but he managed to preen them all.

chin
He even scratched his chin feathers, which gave me a close-up view of his fuzzy butt.

finally
Finally it was time to flap off the last of the water droplets.

Chewy even flapped to show off his buff chest feathers. He has been working out.

The bright sunlight showed off Chewy’s colorful feather details once he was all clean and preened.

lookin
Lookin’ good, Choo Choo. Right down to the last freckle.
“Thanks.”

nap
After preening, Chewy laid down next to his wingman Flapper for a nice Saturday afternoon nap.

I was laying down on the other side of Flapper, so we all took a nap together.

On the other side of me, even O’Malley settled down for a nap with Petunia and Olivia the chicken.

Simon gave us the stink eye from across the yard, because he doesn’t like to nap near flapping birds. Too bad, Simon.

We hope everyone had as nice of a Saturday afternoon as we did.

Happy summer weekend, from Chewy and the whole crew.

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June 27, 2010|Chewy Magooey, Fuzzy Indoor Ducks, Mr Flapper, O'Malley Peepers, Petunia Peach, Rescues, Silly Human|7 Comments

It was a long weekend in every sense of the word. I graduated, my parents were in town for my graduation, Racquel L’Oreal Chicken passed away, we had some long drives to go whale watching and all in all it was just way too busy for me.

cure
Luckily the cure for a hectic, crazy weekend is very close by.

Thanks for the hugs, Flapper.

By the way, I am wearing my graduation cap and gown all week long, just to get the most out of this new Master of Public Administration degree. Yay for graduation!

Special thanks to everyone for the heartfelt well wishes on the passing of Racquel. It means a lot to me and everyone here at Flapper’s house.

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June 15, 2010|Mr Flapper, Silly Human|13 Comments

Worldwide Protest to Save Lolita

Today we took a break from the ducks to go help out an orca whale. Today was the Worldwide Protest to Save Lolita the orca. The protest took place in over 40+ locations around the globe, in hopes to pressure Miami’s Seaquarium to implement a plan to release Lolita back to the wild. Here are a few photos about today’s protest in downtown Seattle. We’re holding the simple “FREE LOLITA” poster.

View the full news story here: http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-444693

Lolita’s mother is still alive and swimming near her original capture site right now. Imagine if Lolita could be returned to her family, after all these years of being forced to do tricks to earn food. Read more about the plan to return Lolita to the wild here: http://www.orcanetwork.org/captivity/culture.html

Lolita cannot speak up for herself, so it’s up to us to speak up for her. Thank you to all of the people worldwide who spoke out for Lolita today. She deserves all the best we can do for her.

Check out what little guy Trevor Metcalf did to help Lolita today…

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May 15, 2010|Silly Human|6 Comments

Another Beautiful Weekend

Unbelievably, we had another beautiful weekend with great weather, good family time and no vet visits!

flap
Flapper spent some quality time in his tree trunk pool.

swim
He practiced his swimming.

diving
And his diving.

His splashing.

And even his flapping.

oh flapper
Oh, Flapper. That was very, very good swim practice.
“Thank you.”

“Will you come in and swim with me?”
I’m afraid the pool isn’t big enough for both of us, Flapper. But thank you for the invitation.

fit
“I think you can fit. Let’s start with your ankle.”
Ha ha nice try, my handsome boy.

aww shucks
“Awww shucks.”

worms
“Well if you’re not going to swim with me, let’s go eat worms together.”
Ooh… why don’t we make it waffles and you have a deal.

deal
“Waffles it is! Let’s go.”

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April 26, 2010|Mr Flapper, Silly Human|2 Comments

And Now for Something Completely Different

orcas
Today we took a break from the ducks and went to visit some whales. We joined our flickr friend Annette, and set out to find some Gray whales and Orca whales.

male
It was a beautiful, sunny day with calm, smooth water. This huge male T87 Orca made this red boat get out of his way. He was swimming along with two other Orcas.

more
We probably saw 12+ Orcas and followed them for about an hour.

party
It was an Orca party, everywhere we looked!

Then we set off to find a Gray whale, only to hear that we’d just missed these Orcas ATTACKING a Gray whale named Patch!

gray
We found our own Gray whale and were happy to miss the Patch attack, as it was pretty bad.

amazing
This Gray whale was feeding in the shallow waters, and would come up for air every 3-4 minutes.

tail
We even got to see his tail for a brief moment.

brant
We also saw some Brant geese, a sea lion, a bald eagle, a juvenile bald eagle, some grebes and of course… a few ducks.

When we got home, we heard that the Orcas we had been following had really attacked Patch pretty seriously, and that this was the third known Orcas attack on Gray whales in a week. This is entirely new for Orcas in the area, and troubling for the Gray whales. Here is a news story on the attack (be warned, the video is disturbing).

News story on Orcas attacking Gray whale: http://www.king5.com/video/featured-videos/Orcas-attack-gray-whale-90582659.html

After I told Flapper about the amazing whale watching trip, he made me double-check his pool to make sure there weren’t any Orcas in it.

It was an amazing day, and we hope to go whale watching again really soon.

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April 11, 2010|Silly Human|3 Comments

Places Everyone

hello
Hello! Hello? Hey everyone, I’d like to take a family photo. Can you cooperate and get into your places for me?

good
“Is this good?”
That is pretty good, O’Malley. Yes. Oops. Simon? Can you back up a little bit?

eeps
“MOM! O’Malley is not posing. He’s chasing!”
O’Malley NO! Come back. Chewy, wait! Awww crud.

bug
“I am going on a bug hunt. Let me know when everyone else is ready.”
Okay, Chewy. I don’t think it’s going to work, so maybe I’ll just use this composite photo instead.

aah
Aaah yes, this is much easier. There we go. What do you think?

what
What is it, Flapper?
“Why didn’t you just do that in the first place, instead of making me stand close to O’Malley?”
I don’t know, buster. Good question.

ready
“I am ready for my close-up.”
That might be a little TOO close, Racquel.

better
“Is this better?”
Oh yes. That is very pretty, Racquel.

“You didn’t forget us, did you?”
Oh I’m sorry, crows. I wasn’t sure you’d want to pose with us since you’re wild.

this
“Is this my best side?”

this
“Or is this?”
They’re both very dashing, Mr. Crow. Thank you for posing.

Well we didn’t get everyone to pose together, but they all wanted to wish everyone out there a very happy new year.

And now that I have all of my family’s attention, I have a message for them.

letter
Dear feathered and furry family members:

Over the past month or so, many of you have not been feeling well. Simon stopped eating for a while, Chewy got a random infection, O’Malley had feather cysts and Racquel had a cold.

Now that you’re all feeling better and all doing well, please… PLEASE take care of yourselves. Or at least learn to take turns getting sick.

In December we had way, way too many vet visits. So let’s start the new year by resolving to stay healthy, okay? We’ll cut back on treats a little bit, get extra rest when we need it and stay out of the rain (this means you, Racquel). Don’t hesitate to let me know if you’re not feeling well, but let’s do all we can to stay healthy.

Lots of love,

Your devoted human
XOXOX

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January 12, 2010|Chewy Magooey, Fuzzy Indoor Ducks, Mr Flapper, O'Malley Peepers, Petunia Peach, Rescues, Silly Human|6 Comments

Chewy to the Vet

choo
Chewy hasn’t been feeling like himself since sometime Thursday night, so we took him to the vet this evening.

hide
He really, really hates to go to the vet, and he hides in my arms so he’ll be invisible. Chewy has been so healthy his entire life, that he hasn’t had to go to the vet much.

[Click the x-ray for a larger view]Chewy had an x-ray, just to be sure he didn’t eat anything metal. I was a little bit worried because I woke up Thursday night to find him standing in the kitchen, instead of in his regular sleeping area. Thankfully, his x-ray looks good. He also had blood work drawn tonight and was given some baytril and sub-q fluids to keep him hydrated.

choo
Chewy will go to his regular vet tomorrow, and his blood results should be back then, too. Hopefully he is just a little under the weather from the cold snap we’ve had and the stress of having to sleep in the dining room for a few days.

Flapper doesn’t like it when his best wingman isn’t feeling well, so we wish Chewy a very speedy recovering from whatever’s bugging him.

In other news, Racquel’s cold is finally better. But Simon has been having health issues too.

vet
Simon had to go to the vet on Saturday because he hasn’t been eating well. I know! Crazy, right? SIMON not eating?? He has been on a special drug for his rashes for about six weeks. He was also supposed to lose weight during that time because he is too fat. But unfortunately that drug for his rashes didn’t agree with him and he ended up losing way too much weight, way too fast. In six weeks he went from over 19lbs to 15.7lbs! That drastic weight loss can be very bad for a cat’s liver. So Simon’s blood results will be back on Tuesday and in the meantime he is on anti-nausea medication, pain medication and appetite stimulant to help make sure he eats enough. I think he ate enough today, but if he doesn’t eat better every day he will need to be force-fed until his appetite picks up again.

In addition to having both Simon and Chewy at the vet this weekend, we also finished up two final papers for two graduate courses that were due at 9pm tonight. Never a dull moment at Flapper’s house!

Thankfully it is warm enough for the ducks to be back outside, and I know Chewy prefers that. I’ll update more on both Simon and Chewy as we get more info, and in the meantime, send a few good thoughts if you have some to spare.

Best,

Tiff and the gang

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December 14, 2009|Chewy Magooey, Fuzzy Indoor Ducks, Silly Human|13 Comments

Busy busy busy

Hello!

We’ve been a little quiet here at Flapper’s house, but rest assured, all is well. We’ve just gotten a little too busy for a few weeks.

Simon is feeling better after having a rash for a long time. He has new food, yet again, and new medication. It looks like this might help!

good
It’s nice to see him feeling well and enjoying the sun when it appears.

racquel
Racquel the chicken is feeling better after having a cold. She is even back to her daily singing.

rick
A few weeks ago we had a fun, unexpected visitor to Flapper’s house. Rick here went to high school with us… TWENTY YEARS AGO. That was the last time we had seen him, but after a day of touring Seattle and catching up, it was as if no time had passed at all.

Spunkie
For the past week or so, we’ve been caring for this kid, Spunkie. She’s the neighbor’s cat. We feed her twice a day and watch her hide from us. She doesn’t like strangers. Hi Spunkie!

school
We’re also still in graduate school here… for just a few more courses. And readings like this one just about send us over the edge. Can’t wait ’til we’re done!

That’s about it for the updates from Flapper’s house. We’ll try to catch up again soon and share some new photos. The weather has been really rainy and windy, but maybe this weekend it will clear up.

choo
Chewy, as always, sends his love.

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November 18, 2009|Chewy Magooey, Mr Flapper, Rescues, Silly Human|6 Comments

Park Kids

These are some ducks we saw at the park. There are a few hybrids and domestics there, but they all seem in good health. They were hanging out with the coots, who have the best feet ever. I’ve never talked to the coots before, so that was fun.