jmgoyder

wings and things

Avian antics

I didn’t mean to chop this turkey’s head off in the photo, however yesterday evening I wanted to do it literally because Bubble got trapped behind a fence and Son and I had to herd him into our garden and back to the yard. Okay, to explain – both of our original turkeys are named Bubble. This one is obviously a male because he is much bigger than the other Bubble who, at the time of this ridiculous incident, was already in the yard with Baby Turkey and the gang. Now the reason I describe this situation as ‘ridiculous’ is because I don’t understand why this Bubble had to be herded when he can fly!

It’s as if he wanted to do it the hard way, rather than the easy way – or perhaps he just lacks commonsense. I understand both, I guess, as I often choose the more difficult route unintentionally due to an innate (it would seem) inability to see the commonsense solution.

The most ironic thing is that, once Bubble was in the yard with the gang, he flew straight into the adjacent emu yard anyway! The Emerys love him because he stops Baby Turkey from giving them nightmares.

And then Tapper did her evening indecision dance. She perches on top of the fence between the gang’s yard and the Indian Runner’s yard, as if to say, “Which one of you guys wants me most?” This flirtatiousness has given her a rather bad reputation so, in the end, she usually just flies out of all of the yards and goes back to the bath to meditate.

And poor King peacock now hides in the avocado tree because he is (I assume) so embarrassed that his feather aren’t growing back as quickly as was expected, so now all of the adolescent peacocks are surpassing him.

Husband’s nursing lodge is in ‘lockdown’ at the moment due to a virus outbreak so, even though I have snuck in a couple of times, I’ve been told not to visit, or bring him home, until it is safe. Apparently tomorrow it will be ‘all clear’ again. In the meantime, Son’s post-surgery convalescence is having its ups and downs.

Last night I dreamed I was a bird – just a tiny bird, the size of a sparrow – and I was flying over this farm and our house trying to shed my little leftover feathers onto all of the things that needed fixing, but I couldn’t because my feathers were made of steel. My wings got more and more cement-like and, eventually, I fell to the ground.

Perhaps I need to get a non-Avian hobby – hehe!

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‘blogetiquette’

Blogging about blogging is, yes, a little strange perhaps, however, as a relative newcomer to this form of communication and writing, I have decided to coin the term ‘blogetiquette’ because I think it needs to be one word – a neologism if you like! (I’m hoping that the annual dictionary re-writers will pick this up and make me famous!)

So, the blogetiquette rules I’ve decided on for myself include:

  • have respect for the parents of the blog (in my case, wordpress.com)
  • only subscribe to other blogs if you are genuinely interested (not because you want them to subscribe to yours)
  • read all of the posts written by your fellow bloggers before publishing your own
  • reply, or at least, acknowledge all comments made to you on your blog – again, before you publish your own
  • get permission before you reblog someone else’s post (this is only because reblogging has recently become fraught)
  • limit yourself to less than 5 posts per day or you might annoy people with the email build-up (the most I do is 4 and that’s not often because I’ve had some negative feedback about overposting!)
  • be grateful for any awards or nominations you receive (whether you accept them or not)
  • respect your readers and subscribers
  • never hit the ‘like’ button unless you really do like the post
  • always be honest in your own posts
  • never criticise other people’s posts

I’m sure I could think of more but those are the ones I usually adhere to now that I have made the transition from novice to fledgling.

Speaking of fledglings, these two peacocks have nearly grown their ‘King’ feathers …

… whereas poor old King is still mourning the loss of his own (don’t worry, he’ll grow them back soon!)

Of all the birds who live here, it is the peacocks and peahens who have the best etiquette skills in terms of their respect for each other and for us too. When they take bread from my hand, instead of nearly swallowing my arm (as the geese do), they make a soft clicky noise as if they are saying ‘thank you’.

They have birdetiquette down to a much finer art than we will ever get blogetiquette!

If you have any blogetiquette tips, please share them….

Politely yours

Julie

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Is the grass always greener?

I’ve just counted it up – the emus were gone for seven days – a whole week! Well, we now know they weren’t exactly gone and they were just in the next door paddock but wow! You have to realize that these paddocks are huge and the emus are still relatively small at one year of age. Also they blend in and, from a distance, look like tree stumps or branches. Or perhaps I need glasses!

Jenny, the farmer who owns the paddock, and I, had a big laugh on the phone about why they would prefer her paddock to ours, and Terry’s wife, Kaye, quoted the old saying, ‘the grass is always greener’, but what I find most interesting is that, instead of running for the hills, the emus stuck around.

It’s such a strange feeling to have actually let them go, in my heart and head, and now they’re back. For days, I comforted myself by imagining that they were frolicking in the forests, drinking from the streams, making friends with wild emus, and I actually accepted they were probably better off. Now I realize they didn’t want to go. The paddock they were in was on the corner of two roads and very easy to get out of (much easier than getting back into our paddock – go figure!)

With only three Emerys left (and the death of the fourth haunts me), the happy ending is a little tainted, however it is a beautiful thing to have them back. Once back in their yard, they went straight to the water trough and then to the bowl of wheat, then looked at me, and my container of cabbage, with glee!

This one is much more interested in my ring than the cabbage (they love anything shiny).

My beautiful Emerys! I will take them for a SHORT walk later today.

Maybe!

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Bedtime

The geese and ducks like to have a bath before bedtime. Godfrey usually supervises.That’s him at the back.

The two turkeys we call ‘the Bubbles’ never participate. That’s one on the left, walking away.

Even if the turkeys were interested, Godfrey hisses them away. He has a very powerful hiss which he accompanies with an angry trumpet noise.

The peacocks aren’t interested in bathing either. They think the ducks and geese are weird! Angelina, in particular, is rather disdainful of their antics.

I can see Angelina’s point of view – Ola, Pearl and Tapper like to play leapfrog in the bath.

Everyone waits their turn.

Well, except for Tapper who is always the last to get out of the bath and go to bed. That’s her at the forefront.

Pearl and Diamond aren’t that keen on leaving the bath either.

Woodroffe, however, willingly goes to bed because he loves his bedtime snack of lettuce scraps.

Zaruma’s favourite bedtime snack is bread, so he also willingly goes to bed.

Eventually, Godfrey and I get them into their yard for the night. Once they are in, Godfrey usually turns around a gives me a goodnight kiss (a sharp nip to the ankle) if I don’t leave the yard quickly enough!

Ahhh – the bedtime ritual!

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Golden pheasant reflections

Phoenix 1 is getting more narcissistic by the day! This morning be began his ritual of trying to find his reflection in the veranda windows very early.

His view of himself was blocked, but he persevered and, eventually stopped his plaintive chirping when he saw a little bit of himself.

Finally, he saw the whole of himself. He stared admiringly for a moment, then trotted off (yes, he does trot!) to join the peacocks in eating some figs that had dropped onto the ground nearby.

So, by my calculations, this gorgeous but peculiar pheasant spent nearly 7 hours looking for a good reflection of himself, then, once he found it, he left his ‘mirror’ to have fun with the other birds.

I don’t get it and I really think Phoenix 2 should come back to give Phoenix 1 some perspective!

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Geese, glorious geese (and a few humans!)

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Peacock feathers

The other afternoon we had visitors and three little girls collected peacock feathers from the lawn and gleefully asked me if they could keep them. Of course I said yes, and they took the feathers back to where they were staying, their eyes alight with excitement.

Less than 15 minutes later, the feathers were returned. “We’re not allowed to have them because they’re bad luck,” said one.

I was gobsmacked. Obviously I had heard of this superstition before but I was amazed that something so beautiful, and in the hands of such beautiful children, could be rejected and rendered ugly. The following picture is of King before he shed his feathers. He will grow them back soon!

The myth of peacock feathers being bad luck is equally matched by the myth of peacock feathers being good luck. This has to do with whether you see the peacock feather’s ‘eye’ as malevolent or benevolent – whether you see it as watching you, or watching over you. It also has to do with whether you are superstitious or not. I’m not.

So I now have those rejected peacock feather in a vase next to me. Their eyes stare into mine with the kindness of centuries.

Never have I felt so safe.

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Eggs

Angelina: What are these things?

Phoenix 1: I’m not sure, but they look rather delicious.

Queenie: They’re chicken eggs, you morons. Well, I think they are … they dropped out of the woman’s bag of cabbage. Don’t touch them – they could be from the shop!

Tapper: How do you know they’re not duck eggs?

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Footsteps

Sometimes you have to collide with a corner before turning it and yesterday Son and I had one such collision. Don’t worry, we weren’t in a car or anything; we were just in the kitchen verbalizing a fair bit of angst with each other. Much later in the day, having extricated each other from the crash scene, we both realized that we were not angry with each other, but angry with ourselves, so we sat outside in the dusk and managed to turn the corner.

This morning, knowing that today we would be running in the same direction, I sipped my first coffee with a feeling of anticipation and waited for Son to wake up. It wasn’t until I was into my second coffee that I heard his footsteps in the house so I went into the kitchen and, thinking he was in his bedroom, I called out, “Good morning! I’m so glad we had that talk yesterday because I think it’s just that we’ve both been in a kind of rut so a bit later, when you feel up to it, we’ll get out of the house and go to town. We should go to a restaurant for lunch – do you want to go to that one on the beach?”

When there was no answer, I was a bit mystified until I went into the bedroom to find Son still fast asleep. Then I heard the footsteps again and realised it was King peacock on the roof!

You gotta laugh!

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Up close!

Since beginning this blog, and discovering the wonderful world of photography via other blogs, I have become really keen on developing my obvious natural skills. Take, for instance, this close-up of Woodroffe which I’ve decided to enter it into a ‘worst photo’ competition if there is such a thing. (If there isn’t, perhaps I should patent this idea?) Alternatively, it could be a poster for an up-and-coming horror movie? It’s hard to believe, isn’t it, that this is simply Woody being affectionate with me.

This following photo of Seli is not much better. He seems to be saying, “focus, Julie, focus” Well, I was trying!

I have improved a little I think. This photo of an Emery isn’t bad. Yes, I know I’ve posted it before, but I can’t take anymore pictures, now that the emus have gone, can I.

And Angelina will do handstands, pirouettes, imitate the ‘swan-stance’ – anything at all, including standing very still – to get her photo onto the blog.

So I am thinking of adding the category of ‘photography’ to my blog but that is just as scary as the picture of Woody!

No, wait a minute, I just remembered a scarier thing; last night I took a close-up photo of my own face as an experiment.

Why, why, oh why did I do that?

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