Egg Thief Surveillance

[AimToMisbehave]

So one of my dog boarding clients offered to loan me an awesome game camera that she wasn't using to see what's been stealing eggs out of my duck house. I set it up yesterday and still didn't get any shots of the thief, but there's some hilarious ghosty shots of my silly birds and their night time activity, and proof that Gwaine was responsible for today's one egg. I deleted most of them, but here's a couple, and I will continue to surveil until the culprit is identified! Please ignore the time/date stamps... I totally forgot to set that when I put it outside.


So spooky!

Late night conference

Settling in for sleep... the camera took 1059 pictures, and most of them were of sleeping birds

Late night duck yoga

Gwaine working diligently on her egg (she was sleeping in the nest for a maybe an hour before this point, though I couldn't tell it was her from the pictures until it got light enough to switch from IR to color pictures), Zuko diligently guarding her from the strange new thing (he was also there for quite some time).

Egg apparently accomplished, and Ezri and Zoe go to congratulate Gwaine while Impa photobombs like a pro. Zuko has such a cranky face! Gwaine did lay back on the egg for another hour or so after this, but she eventually wandered off, and no more pictures were taken once my husband let the flock out of the pen in the morning.

 

[cavemanrich]

Would you be surprised if the thief had 2 legs.??? Never rule nothing out.
HOPE YOU CATCH HIM.

 

[AimToMisbehave]

Would you be surprised if the thief had 2 legs.???  Never rule nothing out. 
HOPE YOU CATCH HIM. 

Whatever it is is small enough to fit through the chain link, but big enough to carry 70-80g duck eggs out of the duck house and around the corner to a secluded spot the ducks can't reach, to crack them open and eat them. Found a pile of shells back there, so apparently this is a recurring thing.

Of course, we're planning on running hardware cloth all around the pen to keep whatever it is out, but until we've got the spare funds for that, I'm gonna keep doing spy stuff to figure it out.

 

[cavemanrich]

There are 2 predators that are likely to be doing this egg diet night raids. A skunk, and an opossum. A skunk is a longshot since it cant squeeze thru chain link, and would have left you traces of perfume as a thank you. That leave opossum. A small one possibly can get thru, or climb up somewhere higher to find an entrance. The pile of shells is a clue. It is also a clue that it is a small one. A larger one would choose meat over eggs.

 

[lomine]

Love the photos. Good luck in catching the thief.

 

[AimToMisbehave]

There are 2 predators that are likely to be doing this egg diet night  raids.   A skunk, and an opossum.  A skunk is a longshot since it cant  squeeze thru chain link,  and would have left you traces of perfume as a thank you.    That leave opossum.   A small one possibly can get thru, or climb up somewhere higher to find an entrance.   The pile of shells is a clue.    It is also a clue that it is a small one.    A larger one would choose meat over eggs. 

I'm suspecting opossum (although my friend whose mom rescued opossums tells me that they have some trouble picking up and moving eggs) or some kind of weasle...

 

[AimToMisbehave]

Caught an intruder! But no eggs today, so still no proof if this is my thief or not. If he is, I'll be very impressed at such a little guy moving big eggs so far.


Sneaky rodent! Looking around for spilled food pellets, I suspect, though the ducks only get as much as they can eat in like <30 minutes.

He didn't stick around long, maybe 5 minutes tops once he realized there wasn't any food around

Everyone looking for spilled pellets! Greedy birds!

Impa still perfecting her photobomb technique, while all my blues (Zoe, Wednesday, and Weyoun) hold a fabulous monochromatic conference!

 

[jennifleur]

Zuko is gorgeous! I love the green and purple. What breed is he?
Hope you catch the thief.

 

[AimToMisbehave]

Zuko is gorgeous! I love the green and purple. What breed is he? 
Hope you catch the thief.

Thank you! I got him in a batch of what was supposed to be all Runners, and he was more upright when he was a baby, but then he hit puberty and got chubby and horizontal, so I suspect he might be a part-time Cayuga. My other drake, Azula, has the same coloring, but is more Runner-shaped.

 

[AimToMisbehave]

Another late-night intruder, but still no egg-thievery... no one is laying this week! I won't give up!


Impa's love of the camera is becoming sort of a thing...

Not sure who this ghostduck is... based on the spots, I'd say probably Weyoun? The saucy over-the-shoulder looker is Azula, I think... it's crazy difficult to tell them apart in IR!

Everything in IR is 1000% spookier. Especially white ducks...

This is the frenzy as I come into the pen with a scoop of food

AHA! SNEAK!!!

THERE'S NOTHING IN THAT BOWL! I have 20 minutes worth of pictures of the ducks picking the whole area clean!

DON'T TRY TO BE CUTE, SNEAKER!

I think this is the same one from last night... he stuck around for <10 minutes again, then gave up.

Zoe stood here all nice for a solid minute to get a good picture of herself, so it's only right that I make sure to share it as well.