We’ve been quiet here at Flapper’s house, but just because we’ve been busy. All is well. Flapper’s beak is peeling a bit, but that’s normal. Doesn’t hurt him. Happens once a year. Chewy is around, but he hasn’t posed for any photos this week. Olivia too.
It’s been kind of hot in Seattle, so Janet the chicken has been trying to stay cool by fanning out her feathers. She insists it is very civilized, but I think it looks goofy.
Olly Astro thinks it looks a little goofy, too. But it’s pretty hot in Seattle.
So eventually she decided to join in the fun. A nice dust bath didn’t cool her down, but it cleaned her up.
I have been staying cool with fruit icees made from fresh fruit from the local farmer’s market. Olivia shares them with me but the other chickens don’t care for them.
Olivia and Olly Astro still don’t get along too well, but they mostly avoid each other. As you can see, most everyone gets along okay as long as I keep an eye on them.
The hot weather has caused Petunia to start molting. She leaves a pile of feathers everywhere she goes.
She’s still pretty though, even if she’s missing a few feathers.
Simon is doing well. He loves hanging in the yard in the warm weather, and he prefers the heat to the rain.
That’s just about all the updates from here at Flapper’s house. We’re doing a lot of maintenance work on the yard, so we haven’t had much time for the interwebs. We’re having a tree taken out, trimming up the ivy, keeping everything watered and hoping it cools down soon.
We hope you have a good week. Chewy and Olivia send their best. They promise to pose for more photos this week.
Sometimes people we don’t really know, but who follow Flapper’s blog, want to drop by and meet him. This past weekend two nice people came to meet Flapper and they brought him treats. They know the way to his heart. Check out this video of us all just hanging out and talking.
It was private when I posted it before, but I think it’s fixed now.
Tonight we heard the crows going bonkers and figured they were tracking raccoons down the street. I got in my car and put the top down and slowly headed down the block to see if I could tell what they were tracking. One street over, I slowed to a stop where the crows were watching something in the trees. I couldn’t tell what it was, and then I realized the neighbors thought I was casing their houses… slowly driving by. Since I didn’t want to explain that I spoke crow, and I could tell they were tracking a predator, I decided to drive on my way.
Over an hour later, I returned home and the crows were still at it. By then I could tell they were tracking raccoons, and the raccoons were headed towards my house. So with the ducks safely in their night pens, I sat quietly in the yard and waited to see what would happen.
Pardon my French there at the end of the video.
The above video shows how the crows work hard to protect my ducks from predators like raccoons. They dive and swoop at the raccoons and caw as loud as they can to warn me of the danger. Even the Stellars Jays were helping.
Here is one raccoon in the neighbor’s compost pile. I snapped a few photos over the fence.
The raccoon was turning over the compost pile to eat grubs and bugs. This was just before two raccoons came into my yard.
In my yard, the raccoons stood right on top of Flapper’s night pen and scared Flapper & Chewy who were inside the pen, just below the raccoon. Then they moved along to O’Malley and Petunia’s pen, scaring them as well.
So, what does a raccoon do after eating cherries from all the trees on the block, eating bugs from the compost piles and terrorizing the ducks? Well of course, they sit down on a nice hammock and groom themselves.
This raccoon sat on top of my nice aviary and cleaned his belly and paws. He did not care that I was sitting right there, snapping photos of him. That’s right, he’s using my aviary as a f$#%ing hammock!
Late last week I realized the raccoons had learned how to chew through the aviary netting, and I knew I had a problem. Tonight I saw first hand how brazen and fearless these raccoons are. I have put a call in to the fencing company to see if they can fence in the top of the aviary. I hope they can. The ducks aren’t really safe in the aviary anymore, so they will be in their pens or only out when I’m with them until we find a more secure day-time solution.
As for the raccoons, it is illegal to trap and relocate raccoons. Why? Because raccoons can travel up to 50 miles to try to get back to their home territory. Also, you can inadvertently release them in another raccoon’s territory, causing fights and injuries to them or other wildlife. And while they try to return to their home territory, they are often hit by cars.
You can trap and euthanize them, but even then they will just be replaced by another raccoon, and they are only acting according to their nature. They shouldn’t have to lose their life for that.
These raccoons are too friendly though, which means they are probably being fed by people. This is f#%$ing ridiculous. Do not feed wildlife. Do not leave pet food outside. Do not put out scraps. Secure your trash. Raccoons in the Seattle area have high rates of distemper this year. Do not encourage them with food to reproduce and overpopulate an area. It is bad for them, bad for people and most importantly, terrifying for my ducks. These raccoons are not even remotely afraid of people.
The ducks are safe, and we’ll keep you posted on the fencing of the top of their aviary. Keep your fingers crossed that it can be done quickly and easily. It’s supposed to be a hot week, so I don’t think they’ll like being locked up.
Special thanks to the crows for always being so helpful to my ducks. I love those crows.
It was a beautiful day in the yard today. O’Malley and Petunia hung out and looked for bugs.
Flapper and Chewy settled in for a nap.
And Olivia stalked a beetle.
But wait… who’s this?
The Stellars Jays baby!
The Stellars Jays raised a baby and today he is fledging! They are keeping a close eye on him as he hop hop hops around.
He is a pretty good hopper. He was sitting in the ivy behind our yard or a while.
But a few hops later, he was hiding under the neighbor’s hydrangea.
He is keeping his parents very busy with all of this hopping.
We hope he hopped off to somewhere safe for the night. And hopefully he’ll be flying high in another day or so.
Good luck, Stellars Jay baby! We will call you “Hopper.”
In other news, today we say a sad goodbye to Flapper’s long-distance girlfriend Miss Matilda.
She was a special-needs duck who had a very good life with our friend Terrie. She sent Flapper french fries and notes through the years, and she was a very special girl. We send our heartfelt condolences to Terrie in this time of grief. Rest in peace, sweet Matilda. XOXOX
At about 11pm I felt there was something in the yard, so I turned on the flood light and startled a very large opossum who was eating bugs near the back door. He slowly lumbered all the way across the lawn, back behind the duck pens and up away into the ivy hill.
Good night, opossum.
Later, at about midnight, I had a feeling the opossum had returned. So I turned on the flood light again. This time it was a different opossum, eating a few bits of leftover corn treats the ducks had left behind today at treat time. The little opossum grabbed as much corn as he could before retreating from the flood light into the darkness.
While peacefully enjoying a “juice box” with my furball Simon, I heard a noise outside in the yard.
It was the crow! It was dark outside and the crow was going bonkers and giving an alarm call over and over again!
I ran outside and looked around and sure enough, there was a raccoon crawling around on top of the aviary.
First I checked the ducks and chicken, and they were all fine in their secure night pens, not in the aviary (which is also pretty secure). Then I looked back and couldn’t see the raccoon any more, but the crow was still sounding an alarm. And of course, that meant the raccoon was still there.
I approached the raccoon and s/he was pretty friendly. I don’t want them near my ducks or chicken, so I spoke sweetly to the raccoon until I got within two feet of it. Then I went FULL ON BALLISTIC and screamed at it and charged it and shook the aviary netting so the raccoon would be afraid and run.
The raccoon took off, and I thanked the crow for a job well done. Very good job, crow.
Thank you, crow. I will have breakfast waiting for you in the morning.
In addition to my own feathered family, there are also a lot of wild birds hanging around the aviary.
Most notable is of course my crow friends. The female crow has been gone a few weeks, likely sitting on eggs. But she was back this weekend so it could be that the eggs have hatched!
I leave her a little bit of food in her water bowl to help feed the babies, and she leaves me gifts in return. Sometimes it is an apple peel or something random she has found in her travels. Often it is a stick. When she returned after two weeks, she left this very fancy two fold, three part stick for me to say “thank you.”
While it is nice and all, I told her to think about leaving lotto tickets next time.
There are also quite a few robins around these days. I like their feisty antics and their pretty songs, but there aren’t any regular robins in our yard right now.
The stellars jays are regulars in the yard, and they should be feeding babies right about now, but unfortunately I think they lost their babies to some rogue crows. What are you two stellars doing?
Hey that doesn’t seem quite… OH! I know what you’re doing!
Whoa! Nothing more to see here people. Let’s give these two some privacy. Keep moving. Move along.
Hi, Flapper. Why don’t you tell us about the weekend? “Hi mom. It was a pretty busy weekend around here.”
“But I think I’m going to need some treats to give me enough energy to tell you about everything that’s going on.”
Okay, Flapper. You got it.
“Can I get a little bit of that treat action over here? I prefer worms.”
Sure thing, Chewy.
“I need those extra treats so I have extra energy to MOVE FAST when O’Malley is chasing me.”
Good point, Flapper.
“Okay, so Simon the furball was outside with us this weekend. He likes to keep an eye on the crows.”
“The crow is gathering extra food for his girlfriend and her nestlings. We’re not sure if they’ve hatched yet, but he is stockpiling food.”
“He carries the food from the fence up, up, up…”
“Up to the gutters to hide it for later. Then he takes some to his girlfriend at her nest.”
“And then the crow comes back to hang out with us. Here he is watching the Stellar’s Jay.”
“The Stellar’s Jays are nesting nearby too, but we think they may have lost their eggs or nestlings to some other crows. Sorry, Stellar’s Jays.”
“O’Malley and Petunia spent time this weekend hunting for bugs.”
“Petunia is really good at it because she concentrates really hard.”
“Chewy and I just took some extra naps.”
“Oh… Olivia and Racquel L’Oreal hunted for bugs, too.”
“And Racquel had her butt feathers and face feathers trimmed… hee hee.”
“I think that pretty much sums up the weekend. Why don’t we end it with a few more treats?”
That was a good weekend update, Flapper. Thanks, my buster. I will go grab you some more treats.
The crows in the yard do this funny pose when they are sunning their wings. I have read that sunning their feathers like this helps reduce feather mites and other creepy crawlies. Both of my yard crows do this several times a day when it’s sunny out. They really enjoy it, too.
The crows are almost done molting their feathers. I give them their own water dish to encourage them to leave the duck dishes alone.
They perch on the side of the water dish and tip it over when they take off. It works out okay, because then I refill it with fresh water. They visit the water dish every time I’m out in the yard with the ducks.
When they sun, they particularly like to perch on the astroturf. I believe they like how it’s at an angle facing the sun. At other times of year when the sun is in a different part of the sky, they sun on the roof of the house at a different angle. These solar powered crows are very smart.
