Old Boy Respect

Check out the new Spendour in the Grass website. http://www.splendourinthegrass.com/
Do you see any familar faces there? My friend and (many times) visitor to Hydrorancho, Christopher designed the website.
Talk about respect to Old Boy. Plus is there a duckling at his foot?

Speedy vs Izzy

Speedy likes to think she's queen of the ducks. As long as there are female ducks around, she'll have a go at them. All female ducks have been scared of her, I think I watched her and Katcsa fight once but that was it... until today.
I watched her sort of do her usual chase after them and try to peck the ducklings when I saw Izzy turn around and ark up to fight with her. They are about the same size so it was game on. Speedy's neck feathers got all arched up and she was ready for a punch on.
I had to separate them twice as I'm pretty sure Speedy would have won. If it had of been any other chicken I would have been really annoyed at them but I only look at Speedy through my rose coloured glasses.

Rumor

I heard a rumor yesterday that the original Izzy is coming to Hydrorancho to meet our Izzy the duck. I personally don't think flying from California to Brisbane is that far to visit a duck.
I've already advised her that everyone will be on their best behaviour for her impending visit to the ranch. I'll see about putting a bow tie on Tommy. I only wish that Old Boy was still alive so he could sleep through her visit.
Everyone is penned today as I'm off to the big smoke. I don't like penning them during the day but I told them I do have to have a life you know.

Holiday snaps

I found this little gem while going through our film from our holiday in Japan. While not duck related it does feature a dog.

What is it with Snoopy in Japan?

Friday

There was a snake in the duck pen last night. It was moving towards Lady and the ducklings when I went over there for a nightly check. I ushered Lady and the ducklings out of the pen while I ran over to the house to get Papa.
He came running over with me and he picked it up and carried it out. I then put Lady back to bed in the pen with her babies.
I was lucky we didn't have dessert at the restaurant yesterday otherwise we could have returned home too late. Talk about a close call.

Its official

Well its official Tommy is depressed. He's in the pen today and not coming out. This is how he was last year after the ducks died. I went in there today and we had a little bit of a chat and I told him I'd find him another lady to hang out with. Lady doesn't care, she's off running around with her kids, she doesn't want anything to do with Tommy.
Plus he's malting, maybe his emotions run high when this happens.

Introducing...

With much thought I've decided on the ducklings names. The last name came to me this morning as I was drinking my morning coffee discussing what to name them..

Albie is the male duckling

Kicsi (pronounced Kichi, meaning small in Hungarian) is the female duckling without the black mark on her head

Izzy is the female duckling with the black mark on her head.

This is an old photo as I have four ducklings, but I mainly just wanted you to meet Izzy at the front there. What a pretty duckling and a great name!

What's in a name?

Well its that time when I've been thinking about names for the ducklings. I thought of Fela for the boy (I'm going on the theory that there is one boy and two females). But then papa said that was a bad name, he doesn't really like Fela Kuti much (he thinks the songs are two long). He suggested Albert, which is ok. I like that I can shorten it to Albie.
As for the ladies - papa said we could name one Katcsa again, but I'm against reusing names for pets. I like Georgie, sort of like George the original duck we had here, but again Papa didn't like it.
I thought of a good one today, but I've since forgotten it. Any suggestions?

Tues

I was able to pluck Speedy right out of the tree at night yesterday. Fake Speedy she is not. She was so cute, we had a little chat and I told her she knows she can't sleep in the tree at night.
We're yet to catch the goanna, the trap is due back on Thursday. I'll probably just take the trap back tomorrow as papa is away and I'm not sure how I'd go if I caught one.

Sunday

Well it turns out Lady didn't like being protected Tommy as much as I thought. The next night she was in the other pen and risked losing another duckling than being with Tommy.
We're yet to have any luck catching the goanna, but the dead rat in the cage is starting to smell.
Everyone is being penned today as I'm going to Brisbane early today - they don't like that.
The neighbours chickens are really pulling their weight in the egg department. So much that I'm giving half a dozen away today. Plus they have a pretty good vege patch we've been looting.

Tommy the Bouncer

I went to lock everyone up tonight and saw that Lady and the ducklings had moved from the other pen to the pen with everyone else. They were up the back in the house and Tommy was in front of them protecting them.
It seems that Lady is less scared of Tommy than she is snakes.
The goanna left the tree sometime in the afternoon. I wonder if we'll be successful with the traps tonight. Everyone is staying penned for the next few days.

Goanna alert

I herd a bit of a noise with the chickens so I went to investigate and saw this goanna underneath the mango tree. It then climbed the tree so I ushered Lady and the ducklings into the pen and grabbed the camera. Papa took this photo as I didn't want to get too close. As I write this its hiding up another tree waiting and watching the chickens. We went down to the council and borrowed the largest cat/possum trap we could find so we can attempt to relocate it. I'll let you know how it progresses. As a side note, I don't think this is what took the duckling last night.

Another one

Instead of being awoken this morning with gifts a plenty I woke to only three ducklings. I'm not sure what happened, I'm guessing a snake but who knows. I definitely penned four ducklings last night. Brown bitch still has all six of her babies, Lady looks like she has a little bit of blood on her chest and there are a few feathers in the pen. I only wish I had of heard it.

Tuesday

We drained the duck pond on Sunday and filled with lovely clean water. It was clean for about a second and now its filled with duck poo. The duckling with the black on its head hurt its right foot on Sunday. I had to pick it up as it had lots of blood on it. Once I picked it up I passed it over to papa who inspected it closely. I think it may have lost a nail. It will be fine, I'm really not sure how it happened, but at least it got to wash it off it in the clean pond.

I haven't heard back from the lady I purchased Miss Muffet and Lady from last year, so Tommy is yet to get his new lady.

I was showing my friend these duckling photos and she said I should have a calendar and this would be March.