They're HERE!

I decided to stay home this week to be on chick call, and am sooo very glad I did. The post office brought my special delivery right to my front door.



"Is this noisy box yours? You have to sign for it. What is this... chickens?"

Yep! And noisy as hell too. Loads of CHEEEPING! And crossing my fingers, I opened the box... FOUR CHICKS alive, alive-o!

My first thought was they look like those fake plush Easter chicks. They have different colors too, which I hadn't expected, but it makes sense they weren't put together with a cookie cutter.

Two are butter yellow, and two are cinnamon tinted - all are adorable
They have plushy-feathered legs and poofs under their chins where their feathery muffs will be.

First up, they were each treated to a bum inspection (don't ask). Then while they screamed, I raced around getting their brooder (pen) ready for them. Next it was time to learn to eat and drink. Talk about easier said than done!

I dipped their bills in to the water and eventually they got the idea and started slurping down their first ever drinks - v. cute. But they had no clue about food! You can't live with me and NOT know how to belt down yer grub, I mean, come on!

We flew all the way from the East Coast, & geez, are our wings tired!
Then I had a brainstorm and used a plastic chop stick, tapping it in their food dish, in a pecking hen sort of rhythem. The chicks bee lined to the food and soon all were wolfing down the chicken scratch. Damn. I'm feeling like Einsteinetta!

So now with the gusto they're attacking their chow with, I'm hoping none of them explode.

Oooo... camera... SHINY!

TODAY IS HATCH DAY!

On the East Coast, in a warm incubator, there are rows of Faverolle chicken eggs, that have reached their 21st day - Hatching day! My four wee Faverolle girlie chicks are peeping in their shells. Each chick is summoning up the energy to use their 'egg tooth' and slowly rotate around to open their eggshell like the lid opened on a tin can.

Then, once the groggy, still pipping chics are dry, it's time to be sexed (oh how rude!) as rooster or pullet. Then my 4 girly chicks will be popped into a cardboard box and shipped USPO to sunny Fair Oaks to a throughly pet-starved woman. I'm going to be a Mommy.... er, Mother Hen... er, or something like that!

I recommend turning the sound OFF when viewing this busy chicklet.



A Happy Day for Claire, an Exhausting First Day for 'the Girls'

I can Bird from my office, can you Ski in yours?

I’ve had loads of critters fly past my downtown office window: Peregrine Falcons, Sandhill Cranes, Cooper’s Hawks, bats, butterflies, and what not. It is a fact, I can’t even keep my rosey flowered Gloxinia or Geraniums on the windowsill because hummingbirds do not think 9 or 10 floors is too high to fly for a chance of nectar slurping. One of my favorite fly-bys are flying cigars, called White-throated Swifts.

Sixteen Swifts like flecks against the sky
Today my boss came into my cubicle, and when I swung around to speak to him I saw some 30 or 40 White-throated Swifts bulleting past my window. If there had been no glass between the birds and I, I could have netted one. So while I chatted with my supervisor I was hard pressed to get my eyes off the birdies - I felt like a cat at a goldfish bowl. Even my boss who doesn't get the 'birding' thing, commented on the birds. Myself, being a nature-nerd, corrected his identification of the birds as swallows - close but no cigar - flying cigars that is.

Then my boss left and I had a happy five minutes, enthralled, trying for a clear shot of one of birds with my dinky Canon sureshot – no such luck. Oh well, how many people can engage in their very favorite activity in their office without getting injured, fired, or arrested?


Swifts mirror each other's flight
Can just eek out the top bird's white collar
A bit far off, but nice silhouettes
Yes, not the best White-throated Swift shots, but my office windows are filthy and those birds fly like UFOs. Some day I'll get the perfect swift shot, just not today.