Tuesday, July 19, 2011

not quite ducklings


Another day of watching carefully over our feathered youngsters, who have discovered the delights of a shallow bird bath, and who have practised taking some very short flights - two or three feet, close to the ground ... I think they are eighteen or nineteen days old now, and so should technically be leaving the nest in two or three days time: I'm hoping that it will have given them a great start in life to have been learning how to get around an enclosed yard.   This morning they were joined by a little quail chick - who at one moment got up on the windowsill, and was unbearably beautiful - no bigger than they are, but already like a miniature adult, complete with little tuft to his head.   I managed to escort him out of a gate without anyone else escaping.

I will be so glad - I hope - to see this pair fly off, given the threats posed all the time by the local hawk/owl/weasel/sparrow/ground squirrel etc etc population.   It is nervewracking.

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