jmgoyder

wings and things

Mar 25

The elusive duck

by jmgoyder

Tapper (the duck who all the other ducks and geese adore and want to ‘marry’) keeps disappearing and then – as I mentioned in the previous post – mysteriously reappearing. I never see her anymore during the day but she always comes back at dusk. She waits until all of the gang are yarded and then she takes to the little pond like a duck to water (sorry I couldn’t help saying that!)

I can’t lock Tapper in the yard any longer because she flies out straight away. Well, that’s what I thought until I saw her actually climb out the other evening. She uses her wings for liftoff, but it is her massive webbed feet that get her over the fence. It’s like watching gravity reversed and very funny. So far she has been too quick for me to get a photo. I certainly didn’t know ducks could climb – but maybe she is just multi-talented!

Anyway, one of the Bubbles has lately taken to watching out for her. After all, they were raised in the same box in the kitchen so they’re a bit like siblings. The Bubble pictured below seems most concerned not to let Tapper wander off again but the trouble is Tapper is getting really sick of this. I will let the pictures tell the story:

Wings

29 Comments »
Mar 25

The waterbabies!

by jmgoyder

Yesterday I accidentally flooded a corner of the emu yard. I’d left the hose running in one of their troughs and gone off searching for Tapper (the duck who keeps disappearing and returning from nowhere). When I came back, this is what I found!

The Emerys were in a state of absolute bliss!

Animal Wings

40 Comments »
Mar 24

Funnier stuff

by jmgoyder

With my camera charged and working, I took a lot of pictures this afternoon but this is my very favourite, because it shows the fledgling relationship between Doc and the Bubbles. I think compatibility is about to happen – yeeha!

Animal Wings

18 Comments »
Mar 24

0.1%

by jmgoyder

Last night, I couldn’t sleep which is unusual for me. Husband was back at the nursing lodge and Son had gone (first time since surgery), to a friend’s place for the night. He took Husband’s 18th birthday present with him – a bottle of Bacardi – but we won’t go there!

I wasn’t lonely, because I love being alone; and I wasn’t scared of the dark or the wind, but I just couldn’t stop my mind galloping. So I turned the light on and finished reading a book called Waterlemon (no, that’s not a typo) by Ruth Ritchie in which she describes her journey through the ordeal of her husband’s bicycle accident, subsequent brain injury and recovery.

What struck me most about this story was not her courage in dealing with the events (with two small children and two ‘step-children’), or her courage in supporting her lovely husband throughout the long days, weeks and months of his convalescence and homecoming, but her courage in actually naming the family members who were unsupportive. I mean she actually named these people, all of whom were from her husband’s family.

As I was reading, I started to get a bit worried about how open she was in her slicingly angry, but accurate, descriptions of these people. I wondered if they might be hurt to read about themselves portrayed in such a manner. After all, all stories have two or more sides, don’t they?

But, because Ruth used transcripts from real telephone conversation and emails, I realized her story was legitimate; not only that, once her husband recovered enought to come home again, he obviously didn’t object to the book being submitted for publication, despite his ‘family’ being so exposed.

So, yeah, this has really got me thinking about how, despite my honesty in this blog, I have been, unlike Ruth, pretty lax in mentioning the amazing 99.9% of Husband’s family, and his fantastic old and new friends, and my own family, who have given him/us support, love, assistance and so on. But I have also been pretty wimpy in not mentioning the 0.1% of his family who have, over many years now, broken his heart over and over again in ways that I cannot even bear to express.

The beautiful thing is this: I finally unwimped myself and banished that 0.1% from our lives and wondered why on earth I hadn’t done this earlier, years ago. It’s actually not that hard to say “go away!” Godfrey does it all the time!

Animal Family Wings

38 Comments »
Mar 24

The birds who love to be photographed

by jmgoyder

Okay so the camera has been found, its battery charged and Son just helped me put both together with a muttered, “You have evolved from a caveman into a caveman.” I didn’t think that was very kind and, when he took the battery out of the camera and told me to try again all by myself, (looking at me as if he were a headmaster in a Harry Potter movie) I did it all correctly and he gave me a gold star kiss on my nervously perspiring forehead. “There is hope,” he said, leaving the scene.

And speaking of scenes, where are all the wild birds I saw yesterday? Gone. Well, not gone actually, as I know they’ll be back but why can’t they be here now when my camera is ready?

Then, I suddenly realized what I could do. I could photograph the birds I purchased from doudou, who is not only a great blog friend, but who made the emus especially for me!

http://doudoubirds.com/

They arrived yesterday in a big box and Son, Husband and I gradually unwrapped them all (it felt like Christmas!)

So this is a picture of Emerys 1, 2 and 3 (uncannily like the real ones when they were smaller), and the next one is of a pink and grey galah (the real ones are nowhere to be seen today!) and a bluejay, which reminds me of my five years in Canada as a child. We don’t have bluejays in Australia, so it is lovely to see the galah and bluejay getting on so well!

It is refreshing to be able to photograph such cooperative birds and even Son thinks these pics are “okay”!

Thanks, doudou!

Family Wings

23 Comments »
Mar 23

Believing in birds you can’t see

by jmgoyder

There are all these new birds here – I counted over six pink-and-grey galahs yesterday, a multitude of blue wrens, some wild ducks, and more crows and magpies (which I took for granted before) than I have ever seen before. It’s becoming a wonderland of domesticated and wild birds living in relative harmony, and even our three dogs are okay with things. Now that is a small miracle!

The title of this post is not me trying to be profound; it’s me unable to find my camera – arghh………….

Wings

32 Comments »
Mar 20

Turkey tantrums

by jmgoyder

Okay, just in case you haven’t been following this blog for long, we now have exactly three turkeys (two of whom are called ‘Bubble’), and three emus (all of whom are called ‘Emery’). We had more of both breeds but have suffered some unforseen casualties, all of which are documented in previous posts.  The only turkey who disrupts things now is our most recent addition to ‘the gang’, and we call her ‘Baby Turkey’ because two seconds ago she was tiny!

She is a real bully and scares the hell out of the poor emus when I’m taking them for a walk. I can’t believe Baby Turkey has transformed from a timid little chick into this Terminator character.

Wings

28 Comments »
Mar 19

Oh to be a metaphor!

by jmgoyder

I have always loved the elusive notion of metaphor, and the way it dances and flits from one meaning to another, evading capture.

Okay, back down to ground level….

Unlike Woodroffe (always very grubby), our other Sebastopol goose, Diamond, keeps her multitude of feathers very clean. This is her, wondering if she should venture into a bath already used by Woody, Zaruma and the other members of ‘the gang’. I can definitely understand her reticence!

She’s pretty good at the navel-gazing thing too!

Angelina: How come she never uses us as metaphors? It’s always those filthy geese and ducks!

Brad: Angie, she does use us as metaphors – all the time!

Angelina: Yes but she gives them all the good cabbage and gives us the leftovers. I don’t get that!

Brad: Calm down, Angie – you are my own personal metaphor and always will be.

Angelina: Oh, really? Of what?

Brad: Of beauty, Angie, of beauty. Okay, now which branch do you want tonight – let’s have a snuggle.

…………

I have always loved the elusive notion of metaphor, and the way it dances and flits from one meaning to another, evading capture.

Family Friendship Wings

11 Comments »
Mar 17

Tapper

by jmgoyder

Tapper gravitates between the turkeys she was brought up with, the drakes and ganders who find her attractive, and lots and lots of alone time. She went missing over the last two days and I was worried but then, as I was putting the gang away tonight, she reappeared and flew willingly into a yard full of amorously- confused geese and one lone drake (Zaruma). Mmmm.

In case you haven’t noticed, I am a bit of a novice when it comes to the sexual antics of poultry and other birds and what I witnessed yesterday afternoon was a little disturbing to say the least. Zaruma started it, then Godfrey tried to fight Zaruma off then the shy Seli tried too. I was gobsmacked watching this and was on-the-ready to rescue Tapper, but she didn’t seem to mind, whereas I felt like I was watching one of those disturbing rite-of-passage movies.

Until 18 months ago I was a university lecturer living on a farm; now I am, as Husband puts it, with a twinkle in his eye, a farm girl – ha! As for Son, it’s probably best not to share his current definition of me (another ‘ha’).

I guess I just want things to go back in time – just a little bit.

Wings

16 Comments »
Mar 15

In search of a wife

by jmgoyder

Phoenix 1, our remaining golden pheasant, is in search of a wife – yes indeed. This morning I was amazed to see him flirting with Malay (one of our roosters which might be a hen). Here is Malay in front of one of the old sheds. Malay is the grown up chick belonging to the first Malay who was one of the many hens to disappear courtesy of the fox. S/he is twice the size of Phoenix 1.

Originally we had four pheasants – two brothers from one farm and two sisters from another. All was well until one of the females died and the brothers fought over the remaining female and Phoenix 1 banished Phoenix 2 to one of the neighbouring properties (I wrote about this in my first post). Subsequently, and unfortunately, the other female was also killed by the fox so, in a matter of days, we went from four pheasants to one very lonely male.

When there were four of them, Phoenix 1 and Phoenix 2 spent the bulk of their time flirting with the female pheasants. It was relentless and hilarious. What they did was to flit very fast around the females, do a kind of hoppy dance and then enlarge the striped feathers around their necks, one side at a time – left, then right, then left and so on. It resembled the opening of an old-fashioned fan and I was never able to get a photo of this because they move too quickly. Needless to say, the females (a grey-brown colour) were just as fast in their attempts to escape this constant attention.

So here is another person’s photo of another pheasant doing the fan thing.

Well,  I haven’t seen Phoenix 1 do this for months due to the absence of a female pheasant. So, this morning, as I was sitting on the back doorstep feeding bread to the peacocks, I heard the trilling noise that accompanies the pheasant flirting ritual and was amazed to see Phoenix 1 pursuing Malay, who was also amazed – and alarmed! The chase scenes were like something out of a Disney movie!

What next?

Wings

14 Comments »
«Older Entries
Newer Entries »
Blog at WordPress.com.