a coyote not a fox (updated post)

Stock picture of Coyote from the web

Oh no! A bold fox (correction: coyote) in our backyard (garden side) in the bright morning light this morning. While we don't mind a little rodent control, we worry for our duckies. As we went off to work we were hoping and praying our duck aviary (enclosure) is as predator proof as we designed to be.

Our duckies look so innocent ... we hope they have a good day playing in the rain we are supposed to get and that the preditors stay away.

SCARY CORRECTION!!
GrMaDuck thought it looked like a gray fox but it's face was more dog like, so I we looked up pictures on the web.  It was a coyote!  (see top of updated post)
It was not scared of us but when GrMaDuck charged at it yelling it trotted away.
It was coyote that took our first feathered family members, so we are worried.  Of course we didn't have the bigger safer duck enclosure that we have now.

cooling off on a hot spring morning

It is a hot spring morning.  So we decided to spray them with hose on the gentle shower setting.  (We didn't get any pictures of this).  They loved it.  The drakes would side step just to stay in the right place to get the most of the cooling spray.

Then we propped it to shower over the pool and back of the "aviary".  Being Saturday the girls were given their weekly girlie duckie time in the pool without the boys.   The boy duckies enjoyed digging in the drainage "stream" behind the aviary. 

Then everybody got some time together to hang out at the pool and enjoy the soft shower spray from the hose.

Then we cleaned out the pool (again) and once again split up the boys and girls.  The girls look like they are getting bumble foot again.  With the weather warmer, the ground is harder, and the boys really are not generous about sharing the pool, so our girlie duckies don't get to clean their feet very often.  It is one of the reasons we make sure they get "no boys allowed" pool time on Saturdays.

The boys got more dig and forage time.

Beau cracked us up.  He lied down in the "drainage" stream and dug in and drank the water that was flowing down.  He was doing his best not to miss anything.  It was so funny to watch.

We love our funny duckies.

Beau



Darrick



Kouta



Missy



Queenie

hand feeding

As our ducks get older they get less interested in being touched. This is healthy as they develop an identity as a flock and recognize we humans are not ducks. On of the "tricks" to keeping the close is to hand feed treats.

a walk in the yard late on bright morning

Just a few pictures our duckies.
They really wanted to stay in the aviary because it is a tad bit windy and wind through the trees is "scary". However, we wanted them to eat grasses. we even brought the little pool out in the backyard near the house. Change is not a welcome thing to duckies though.

peace of a cool spring morning with pet duckies

It was a long long work week for MamaDuck and GrMaDuck.  So welcome and embrace the wonderful peace of a spending time with our very loved pet duckies while they forage on this cool overcast spring morning.

Missy                                 Darrick

Darrick                      Beau                              Kouta

Queenie

Missy is looking SO pretty

Queenie and her white speckles

Queenie                                Missy

Beau   (his head feathers are changing again)

Duke Darrick

King Kouta watching the sky for preditors

Beau                                   Queenie

dig dig dig

Our duckies are LOVING springtime, and they got the extra treat of spending lots of time outside the aviary while GrPaDuck was home from work and spending time working in the garden.  Our happy pet duckies are looking really good.  It appears that their bodies needed the extra green goodies.  It's too bad that they have eaten and dug up all the green stuff inside the aviary.



P.S.  Our girlie duckies are NOT laying right now.  We have had a few stretches of days of "yucky" eggs.  The vet couldn't find anything wrong on the last visits, but makes us wonder and worry just a bit. 

yucky very soft shelled egg

In the future, we would like to add a few more girls to our little flock, but we would like to have a better understanding of the egg issues associated with our water, soil, etc, before we introduce more duckies.  In the meantime everyone is happy and healthy so we are happy too!

YouTube video links ... video from today:

http://youtu.be/me4ue2TSlBE

http://youtu.be/UBsBV7SGzsk

http://youtu.be/BIAcR0ftDnY


:-) quack quack

A duckie round up

You don't see it in any of these pictures but this morning we had to do three round ups. They are really loving spring grasses which have not yet made a come back inside the aviary.

Here are a few pictures of our feathered loves from this morning