Windy hill chickens - first flock(s) of my own

[kattabelly]

Apparently it's contagious.

Bigger chicks are staying outside in a bodged together roosting shelter until next week when they should have a proper coop. Getting them in there last night was fun - moving them when they're asleep and it's dark isn't really an option in mid June at almost 59° N. Going to head back up there shortly to see whether they've managed to work it out for themselves tonight.

The BRs are looking like they want to roost overnight too, now there's space, but they're outnumbered by the Shetlands who still want to heap sleep.

A raven flew overhead this morning and sent them all running for cover and it reminded of the first time the youngest chicks saw a helicopter. Some of them went and hid underneath something. Some of them... tried.

"It can't see me!"

The south isles post drone often passes quite close overhead and I've never seen any of them bothered about that, interestingly.

 

[BDutch]

Getting them in there last night was fun - moving them when they're asleep and it's dark isn't really an option in mid June at almost 59° N.

How come?
Only dark around 3am?

 

[kattabelly]

How come?
Only dark around 3am?

Never full nighttime darkness or astronomical twilight (twilight is generally split into civil twilight, nautical twilight and astronomical twilight with civil being the lightest and astronomical being the darkest). We get a couple of hours where it's dark enough to need extra light for some things, but you can generally still see enough to do things like run away from the giant bald chicken who's trying to pick you up and put you in a scary box.

Sunrise this morning was 4am so it's already getting light again by 3. Sunset will be at 22:29 tonight. Last night I was out scything until almost midnight.

 

[Perris]

Make sure they don’t make a habit to roost outside. A garden chair sounds like a very unsafe place to spend the night.

FYI @BDutch https://www.orkneynativewildlife.org.uk/wildlife

 

[kattabelly]

FYI @BDutch https://www.orkneynativewildlife.org.uk/wildlife

ONWP, aka Stoat Patrol. They hate it when you call them that

(Stoats are an invasive species here so they're trying to trap them all, or at least enough to keep the population down and stop them spreading out to all the isles. It's one of those local hot topics that everyone's sick of arguing about. They're a problem for ground nesting birds and small mammals like the native Orkney vole but unlikely to be a risk to healthy adult birds, or chicks that are housed fairly securely; they were probably responsible for at least some of the losses when the semi-feral Muscovies where I used to live were raising chicks in secret hedge nests though.)

My username on here is (one spelling of) the Orkney name for a hen harrier.

 

[BDutch]

My username on here is (one spelling of) the Orkney name for a hen harrier

The name we use in the Netherlands for harrier is Kiekendief. This means chick-thief in translation.

Can stoats swim from one island to another?
How did they arrive on Orkney?

There used to be to be stoat farms in the Netherlands. But they are forbidden now bc of animal welfare issues. Corona speeded it.
They are native in the Netherlands but rare.

 

[kattabelly]

The name we use in the Netherlands for harrier is Kiekendief. This means chick-thief in translation.

Can stoats swim from one island to another?
How did they arrive on Orkney?

There used to be to be stoat farms in the Netherlands. But they are forbidden now bc of animal welfare issues. Corona speeded it.
They are native in the Netherlands but rare.

No one knows for sure but maybe as stowaways in something like a truck of hay. They could've been introduced intentionally by some idiot thinking they'd help control rabbits and rats, like happened in Aotearoa. They can swim a few km which puts a lot of the isles at risk - they've already been detected in a few places besides the mainland.

I've seen them a handful of times myself and at least half of those have been stoats casually strolling past the empty truck where stoat patrol have parked up to check a trap.