At 10am today, it was 63 degrees. The forecasted high is only 77. This is fantastic! We've had the A/C off for almost a week now, despite it being 100+ yesterday. It has been getting down into the 50's at night. This weather is wonderful! Now, if only it would rain... With all this cooler weather, I thought my flock (7 ducks and one goose) would spend more time free ranging. They've still been spending quite a bit of time hiding underneath their favorite spruce tree.
And for those of you who answered my question about the duck (I think he's a drake) that wasn't keep up with the rest of the flock - thank you! I still have no idea what was wrong. I didn't do anything to help, but he seems to be acting better and is keeping up with the flock, even when they run across the yard as fast as they can! My birds did find the dog food bowl recently, and have been helping my husband's dog eat his food.

So, maybe that helped somehow??? I hope the birds don't get themselves in trouble with that. I've seen the dog growl at one of my birds for getting too close to "his" food (I was outside giving the birds a handful of dog food as a treat and the dog was guarding some of it). He did get in trouble for it, but I am a little concerned about what will happen when I'm not there...
When we first started letting the birds outside, I was really worried about how the dog (his name is Jake, and he's a chocolate lab that my husband uses to hunt pheasants and such) would handle it. He's been doing really good so far, but I worry that the food issue could create a problem. Jake doesn't eat his food immediately, and I feed the birds a little less than I think they COULD eat to help encourage them to free range. They free-ranged all right
...right to Jake's food bowl!
I do see them out grazing and chasing bugs as well.