Turner_Family_Flock
Chirping
- May 16, 2020
- 39
- 88
- 67
It's only been one day since Unice passed away but I've already started to notice a dynamic shift in our little backyard ecosystem. Not just including the hens, but 3 wild birds.
In our backyard, attached to the back of our rental property, is a bird house. Yearly, two birds who I believe are black capped chickadees make a nest in the birdhouse, lay their eggs, and they're gone by summer. These two birds frequently visit the hens to steal shed feathers for their nest. Multiple times a day I pass by and one of them has a downy feather in their beak and they're climbing into the bird house to add it to the nest. They're quite nice, and have grown used to human interaction because their house is right above our chicken run. They don't approach humans, but they don't actively flee, and they don't get startled when we come close to their nest.
However, we've got a surprising new addition as of the last few weeks.
A big.
Fat.
Blue.
Bird.
I couldn't tell you exactly what it is, because it looks different than any blue species of bird I've ever seen. It's definitely not a bluejay. But it's fat, has a large beak, and it's blue. Probably about 1.5x the size of my hand.
And I saw him land on the gutter today while I let the chickens into the run and I just kind of smiled because- hey, pretty spring birds amiright?
And then the bastard DIVES straight for the fence, looking like he fully intended to land in the grass, slip through the gaps, and walk into the run. Valentina fluffed up her feathers and he flew back to the gutter.
He hopped along the gutter so that he could dive directly into the run. And he started eating the chicken scratch.
Tiny and Chickety were pecking right alongside him, not seeming to notice in the slightest that he wasn't a hen himself, even given the size difference.
Valentina didn't approach him- or didn't see him I'm not sure, and got back to her morning pecking. Once mr. fat bluebird was content, he flew up to the fence- got the two little angry nuthatches chirping at him, and he flew away. All the while, I'm standing 5 feet away watching this happen.
It reminded me a great deal of the bird my brother had befriended in our old hometown of North Dakota. Well. He and his friends managed to tame TWO birds using cheezits.
They named them Pidgey and Pidgeotto and were thrilled to explain to me how to tell the difference between them. And whenever my brother went outside, those two birds would follow him. On the day we moved out, those birds followed us while we moved things from the back of the house to the front.
And that's how the blue bird sort of acted, not actively following but hanging out, not at all minding human presence.
We might've lost a member of the flock, but I think a wild bird has damn near introduced himself to the hens- if only so he can eat their food.
In our backyard, attached to the back of our rental property, is a bird house. Yearly, two birds who I believe are black capped chickadees make a nest in the birdhouse, lay their eggs, and they're gone by summer. These two birds frequently visit the hens to steal shed feathers for their nest. Multiple times a day I pass by and one of them has a downy feather in their beak and they're climbing into the bird house to add it to the nest. They're quite nice, and have grown used to human interaction because their house is right above our chicken run. They don't approach humans, but they don't actively flee, and they don't get startled when we come close to their nest.
However, we've got a surprising new addition as of the last few weeks.
A big.
Fat.
Blue.
Bird.
I couldn't tell you exactly what it is, because it looks different than any blue species of bird I've ever seen. It's definitely not a bluejay. But it's fat, has a large beak, and it's blue. Probably about 1.5x the size of my hand.
And I saw him land on the gutter today while I let the chickens into the run and I just kind of smiled because- hey, pretty spring birds amiright?
And then the bastard DIVES straight for the fence, looking like he fully intended to land in the grass, slip through the gaps, and walk into the run. Valentina fluffed up her feathers and he flew back to the gutter.
He hopped along the gutter so that he could dive directly into the run. And he started eating the chicken scratch.
Tiny and Chickety were pecking right alongside him, not seeming to notice in the slightest that he wasn't a hen himself, even given the size difference.
Valentina didn't approach him- or didn't see him I'm not sure, and got back to her morning pecking. Once mr. fat bluebird was content, he flew up to the fence- got the two little angry nuthatches chirping at him, and he flew away. All the while, I'm standing 5 feet away watching this happen.
It reminded me a great deal of the bird my brother had befriended in our old hometown of North Dakota. Well. He and his friends managed to tame TWO birds using cheezits.
They named them Pidgey and Pidgeotto and were thrilled to explain to me how to tell the difference between them. And whenever my brother went outside, those two birds would follow him. On the day we moved out, those birds followed us while we moved things from the back of the house to the front.
And that's how the blue bird sort of acted, not actively following but hanging out, not at all minding human presence.
We might've lost a member of the flock, but I think a wild bird has damn near introduced himself to the hens- if only so he can eat their food.
