Mr Flapper Duck

While peacefully enjoying a “juice box” with my furball Simon, I heard a noise outside in the yard.

It was the crow! It was dark outside and the crow was going bonkers and giving an alarm call over and over again!

I ran outside and looked around and sure enough, there was a raccoon crawling around on top of the aviary.

First I checked the ducks and chicken, and they were all fine in their secure night pens, not in the aviary (which is also pretty secure). Then I looked back and couldn’t see the raccoon any more, but the crow was still sounding an alarm. And of course, that meant the raccoon was still there.

I approached the raccoon and s/he was pretty friendly. I don’t want them near my ducks or chicken, so I spoke sweetly to the raccoon until I got within two feet of it. Then I went FULL ON BALLISTIC and screamed at it and charged it and shook the aviary netting so the raccoon would be afraid and run.

The raccoon took off, and I thanked the crow for a job well done. Very good job, crow.

Thank you, crow. I will have breakfast waiting for you in the morning.

XOXOX

In addition to my own feathered family, there are also a lot of wild birds hanging around the aviary.

Most notable is of course my crow friends. The female crow has been gone a few weeks, likely sitting on eggs. But she was back this weekend so it could be that the eggs have hatched!

I leave her a little bit of food in her water bowl to help feed the babies, and she leaves me gifts in return. Sometimes it is an apple peel or something random she has found in her travels. Often it is a stick. When she returned after two weeks, she left this very fancy two fold, three part stick for me to say “thank you.”

While it is nice and all, I told her to think about leaving lotto tickets next time.

There are also quite a few robins around these days. I like their feisty antics and their pretty songs, but there aren’t any regular robins in our yard right now.

The stellars jays are regulars in the yard, and they should be feeding babies right about now, but unfortunately I think they lost their babies to some rogue crows. What are you two stellars doing?

Hey that doesn’t seem quite… OH! I know what you’re doing!

Whoa! Nothing more to see here people. Let’s give these two some privacy. Keep moving. Move along.

The crows in the yard do this funny pose when they are sunning their wings. I have read that sunning their feathers like this helps reduce feather mites and other creepy crawlies. Both of my yard crows do this several times a day when it’s sunny out. They really enjoy it, too.

The crows are almost done molting their feathers. I give them their own water dish to encourage them to leave the duck dishes alone.

They perch on the side of the water dish and tip it over when they take off. It works out okay, because then I refill it with fresh water. They visit the water dish every time I’m out in the yard with the ducks.

When they sun, they particularly like to perch on the astroturf. I believe they like how it’s at an angle facing the sun. At other times of year when the sun is in a different part of the sky, they sun on the roof of the house at a different angle. These solar powered crows are very smart.

Happy sunning, you weirdo crows.

This opossum was hanging out in the yard last night. Probably looking for a few dropped snacks. He was pretty cute for a little guy.

Today after fortifying the duck aviary, I went out to buy a cord so I can transfer videos from my phone to the computer. I just had to share videos of my crow friend talking with me.

In the first clip, my crow friend uses 2 of her 3 main vocalizations. The trill and the caw. It’s kind of hard to see, but the crow is sitting on the stair railing. O’Malley and Petunia are sitting on the lawn near the crow.

In the second clip after I ask the crow if s/he’s hungry, the crow uses my favorite vocalization, along with the trill. Crows make this “meh moo” sound to each other. I like it a lot.

This crow has been around for a few years, but it just started having full conversations with me about two months ago. I have been trying to catch our conversations on video ever since. I think it’s pretty special that the crow likes to hang out and chat with me and the ducks.

The crow is a pretty good conversationalist, don’t you think?

Meh moo and quacks.

This morning when I opened the duck pens to move the ducks from their predator-proof night pens to their day aviary, I noticed something had tried to get into the aviary overnight. So I took some time to inspect the entire aviary and make sure nothing got in. There were two bent-back areas of hardware cloth around the aviary door jam, which has a gap. Sure enough tonight I see who was trying to break and enter.

“Are you making a cape for me, too?”
No. Go away, nerd. We don’t like raccoons at this house. It’d be just excellent if you weren’t NAPPING 20 feet over Flapper’s night pen, too.

“Can I please have a cape? I think I would look good in one. Make mine black and white.”
Get bent, you little $#!@. I’m serious. Time for you to move along.

“Just a little cape?”
GO NOW! I’m still watching, nerdball. Skeedattle!

Sigh.

The duck night pens are predator-proof, but right around the doors to the day aviary there are a few weak spots where the raccoon tried to get in. I don’t want to lose sleep over this nerdball, so tomorrow morning we’ll see what we can do to make sure the day aviary is 100% air-tight and raccoon-proof. So far it is, but those two doors have gaps that I think this guy could weasel through if he tried hard enough. Not near the ground, but up about 3 feet. That’s where I found some bent-back hardware cloth this morning.

So the ducks are safe for the night. And raccoons are always around here. I see them all the time. I just don’t like to see them lounging around right above the duck pen.

Maybe I will introduce this nerdball to Boone the neighbor dog.

This is Russell and Cameron Crow. They hang out in my yard every day with me and the ducks.

As you can see, Russell really loves his lady Cameron. He preens her head and neck feathers often. I’m glad I finally snapped a few photos of them preening, because it’s pretty adorable. He stands next to her and looks at her from all angles, then he preens a section of feathers and stands back to take another look.

Russell does a really good job and Cameron just loves to have her feathers preened. These two crows usually have babies but this year they didn’t hatch any. I think a bad wind storm took out their nest a month ago.

I’m happy they like hanging out with me and the ducks, because I sure like hanging out with them.

In case you’re someone who is irritated by crows, I ask you to watch this video about how smart they are:

The view out my window.

It’s a pretty nice view.