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

[Perris]

Gorgeous photo.

 

[kattabelly]

Double rainbow for luck!

Both single and double rainbows are pretty common here - a side effect of living in a climate that does all of the weather all the time, I guess.

On the island I used to live on, some quirk of geography or other sciencey stuff meant you'd quite often see one that looked like it ended at the local rubbish tip

 

[kattabelly]

Gorgeous photo.

Like all my best Orkney photos, it was taken by blindly stabbing at my phone screen a load of times because there was too much rain/wind/sun/snow in my eyes to be able to see anything.

Most of this batch had either a rusting IBC or an out-of-focus chicken comb in the foreground

 

[kattabelly]

It's a perfect, still morning and the air feels like fresh washing just hung out to dry. The wrens are out making the most of it and I'm so happy to see them again!

A male built a nest in my shed earlier this year (it would've been one of several - the males do the initial construction and then the female will do the interior design, rearranging things and lining her chosen nest with feathers) and when I found it in pieces on the floor I was never sure if it was attempted predation, weather damage or just shoddy workmanship. They're incredibly noisy for birds that weigh around 7-12g (a quarter to just under half an ounce) and he'd always shout at me when he thought I was getting too close. Impossible to get a good picture of them without a lot of patience and a much better camera than my phone has (which is why I started writing this in the morning and then my phone died)

I hadn't seen them around much since then but today they're back, at least one of both adults and juveniles as best I can tell. I only noticed them when some of my biggest, boldest birds started making alarm calls and there's still a lot of concerned buk-buk-ing every time they spot one Only Nora seems intent on killing them; wish she'd do the same with the latest baby rats. She's being really mean to a lot of the chooks today too, even the Sussex girls who were her hatch mates and should be more senior since they're already laying and she isn't. I'm thinking that and the fact she's suddenly found her voice might mean she'll be laying fairly soon herself.