This is Screech.
For the last couple of months we've had a very diligent Tawny Frogmouth pair sitting on their nest close to the house. We've watched with anticipation and were finally rewarded by seeing a little bundle of fluff popping his head out of the nest.
Then last weekend - DRAMA - I walked outside to see a massive monitor making his way towards the Tawny tree. Screamed at hubby to come and help, we tried to avert disaster, but the monitor was way too fast for us and scaled the tree.
Mumma Tawny was very panicked, as the monitor came closer to the nest she flew off into a nearby tree. She gave me a look of absolute desperation HELP ME! (yes, she did!) but the nest/monitor were way too high for us to do anything. Hubby tried to throw things at the monitor, but I stopped him as the monitor's life is no less precious than the chicks - I didn't want to see the monitor get toppled out of the tree and hurt or killed. Plus hubby damn near hit my car with a rock. ;\
I put some eggs around the base of the tree so the monitor could see them, in a vain attempt to lure him away from the chick. We had to go out briefly, so wished the Tawnys good luck. Alas, when we came back, the nest was empty :_|
Went about our afternoon chores when suddenly I spotted baby Tawny! Sitting on the ground next to the tractor. We dropped everything, made him a makeshift nest and put it up in the tree, then caught him and put him in the nest. We saw Mumma and Pappa Tawny watching nearby.
Cut down a long story, Bubba kept jumping out of his nest over the next three days and Mumma and Pappa abandoned him, so the decision was made to bring him inside to keep him safe from both the monitors and our dogs. (our four young ones would kill him).
He will be released as soon as he can fly properly and learn to catch his own bugs (I am catching them for him at the moment). He's all puffed up and hating me in the photo, that's a good thing, we don't want him imprinting on us. He's feeding really well though (I hate you, I hate you, yum, yum, more please, I still hate you).
I have a new breed of poultry. They are called homing roadrunners.
The guinea fowl (roadrunners) got out and went on a foraging expedition in the school grounds with a bunch of ibis. When I went over they ran to me, but wouldnt follow me or let me catch them.
I had to go because of an appointment, so I told them if they weren't home when I got back I would be after them with the fishing net, and I thought they might look quite good on my dining table.
When I got home they were back in their yard :^O
B3lla, I love your karmic rooster story, ha ha, serves them right. Wish someone would come and steal Hagar! (Still waiting for Tas to send me her address....)
Channy and Lyndal, please accept my jimmyjam proof:
I put them on him every afternoon when the sun goes down, he wears them all evening until bed-time. Then I take them off again, 'cos he sleeps under the covers right next to me and I'm worried he'll overheat if I leave them on (I have two doonas on my bed because I am a freezy-bum).
Ms. Mioux, we had geese too, I got them soon after we moved here. Horrible ungrateful critters, they didn't attack me, but would hiss at me and wave their wings if I got too close, despite the fact I would only get close to feed them. We had set up a large above ground pool for them as our dam was empty. What a nightmare, I had to empty and refill that pool twice a week. We rehomed them to a lady down the road a few months later. We get to see them in her dam every time we drive past, so it's lovely knowing they went to a good home.
Thai sounds a bit like a cat I used to have many years ago. He was clipped by a car and I spent a squillion dollars having his broken jaw plated and screwed together. When I picked him up the vet said in his 30 years of vetting, he had never seen a cat eat the same afternoon he had had his jaw wired back together!
Tas, very cute pic. For the three nights Screech stayed under the roof I couldn't turn on the outside light, not wanting to upset him. I had to go and meet hubby at the gate with a torch when he came home.
Channy your homing roadrunners sound like very clever birdies indeed! We had guinea fowl up until recently, unfortunately I had to re-home them too, our three young rescue dogs developed a taste for all things poultry, so I had to pen the guineas which both them and I were not happy about, so re-homed them where they could go back to free-ranging. I loved the guineas, they were such comical birds to watch. Bluddy dogs!
Thanks Freddie :-x
I know it's just one of those things, but just my nature to re-hash it and think "if only".
I would have been sad if it was any one of those calves, but Baby was particularly special.
I nursed him back from the brink of death when he was little, I would sit for hours in the paddock with his head on my lap, dripping formula into him and stroking and soothing him.
When I went up to the vet to get meds which I had to inject into him daily, I got the vet to write into his vet notes "Never to be Eaten". I went home and told OH that it was now official that we could never eat Baby and he just rolled his eyes at me.
Even as a "big boy" (he was coming up seven months old) he still suckled my fingers - most nights I would lead him back to the stable with him suckling on my fingers.
RIP Baby.
The grass was getting too long at the rainbow bridge, and they needed a special little guy to mow it.
RIP little man, and do a good job with that grass
