The Girl's Little Adventure *PLUS!* An Unknown Danger

Today I let the girls out for some supervised free-ranging. I greeted the flock at the door with a cup full of yogurt. Oh, how they were so overjoyed. They all poured out of their enclosure and followed me (with my cup of yogurt) to a sunny spot where I set down the yogurt. The pullets swarmed.

Yumm, yogurt always satisfies.

Lemon's yogurt face.

After the yogurt all disappeared (mostly down the throat of big ole' Lemon), they walked on the rock wall and hopped near some new green grass. I wasn't long before they got a bit too close to the neighbor's, and I guided them with a stick to forage elsewhere.

Top and bottom: Charcoal, Lemon, and Spice make their way to the fresh green grass.

They ran up the slope of my yard. . .

Rounded a bend and headed over to the pool.

Lime was last to follow. She picked and pecked at the ground until she looked up...Oh no! The flock was leaving without her!And she quickly hurried over.

Enjoying the hoard of weeds, yet to be eaten!

Then, after getting bored, they wandered over to the forest's edge. I followed them to make sure they didn't get into any trouble.

Very excited, the girls bound anxiously over to unexplored weeds, leaf piles, and uneaten insects.

Here in the picture the flock is finding food right at the forest's edge.

Today was yet another beautiful day (except for the wind and cold) for exploring, and clearly the flock enjoyed it as much as I had. Everyone was happy and very occupied by their task, as they scratched and overturned wet leaves. Lime was joyously pecking away at the ground, she walked towards the old white picket fence then lifted her head. I thought everything was well until Lime stretched her neck and sounded the predator alarm. . .

"Ba-gawk! Ba-awk!!"

"Ba-ba-ba-baw-awk!"

The girls' heads all shot up straight and they clucked nervously along, my eyes immediately turned and searched in the sky. I saw nothing, no hawks or falcons of any sort. Confused, I looked back at the girls. Their neck were all swerved at the direction of the forest. Using them as a guide, I finally saw what had alarmed Lime. 

There was a medium sized coyote sneaking around the forest, still a bit far away from me and the hens. The coyote was a grayish-brown color that blended very well with his surroundings (the dry leaves scattered around the forest and the trees that had still not grown their buds out), and it was almost impossible to spot unless you had a chicken or other animal around with you. He had been very silent as he neared us, for I had heard nothing.

The coyote seemed to be taken by surprise by Lime's predator alarm call, and now stood still watching us.

I quickly bawked my alarm calls very loudly, to let him know that he had been spotted and could not hide anymore. I grabbed my camera as the coyote made his swift departure deeper into the forest towards a large brush-pile.

Here in this picture, the coyote is turning to leave. Oh, and sorry for the blurriness, I was in a  rush.

I hushed the girls and ushered them back to their enclosure. I now knew, NEVER to let any of the pullets out of my sight for too long. And since I live near a lake bustling with wildlife, I will probably meet another coyote again or maybe some other predator. 

I also took a look in my chicken book called Storey's Guide to Raising Chickens, by Gail Damerow, and read about different chicken alarm calls. I figured that Lime had made an "alarm cackle", which is, as said from the book, "a more consistent caution call announcing the approach of an apparent predator on the ground or perched in a nearby tree.It consists of a brief series of short, sharp sounds followed by one loud, high pitched sound. . .Other chickens may take notice, and some may join the cackling while stretching their necks to get a better look and moving around in an agitated way. . ."

Turkeys Together

I woke up and saw:

About 5 Turkeys in walking over my yard and into the neighbor's property. By the time I grabbed my camera they were already making their way to the other neighbor's yard. Boy, was it raining hard. From inside it sounded like an ocean out there!

The turkeys, turning to leave.

A Sad Departure

Sadly, the little sparrow passed away this morning.

 As I went to check on the female sparrow, immediately when I saw the brown lump on the bottom of the cage I knew. The symptoms of her air sac mite infection seemed to be worsening, so I feared for the worse. My guess was right. The female House Sparrow I had rescued had been in pain and was already to the last straw, now her pain is finally released.

Rest in peace little birdie. 

UPDATE on Sparrow!

The weather outside was pretty nice today, so I brought the House Sparrow outside. She seems to be enjoying the sun outside too. Sometimes when I peak out the window to check on her, I will see her sunbathing lightly on a high branch.

Enjoying a little sunshine.

I also let the chickens out. Maybe not enough mental stimulation was causing my White Leghorn girls to be mean? I also noticed Lime frequently pecking at her neck feathers. It was worth a shot.

The flock swarmed around the bird feeder's fallen seed, it wasn't long until they noticed the interesting cage outside. Lemon, Charcoal, and Lime wandered towards the bird cage contain the sparrow, the little birdie hopped around nervously as her giant counterparts neared.

Lemon and Sparrow have a stare-down contest.

The girls decide to leave after finding that a little sparrow perhaps, wasn't as entertaining as they thought.

Lime takes another look before leaving.

UPDATE: 4/14/14

After changing the sparrow's water and food, I noticed that whenever she got scared by my presences she would flutter and hop around nervously. And after I was away in the distance would she would settle down and breath heavily (with an open mouth), making a clicking sound. Oh no. . .I thought. Clicking or wheezing sounds while breathing heavily in birds usually meant air sac mites, which would make sense because Sparrow came from the wild. If there were too many mites, the host would eventually die as air sac mites are surprisingly active (this activity can damage a bird's respiratory system), their dropping can also cause irritation in birds ( making it more difficult to breath).

The sparrow breathing with an open mouth.

As I searched online for more symptoms, I found that Sparrow matched a lot of them.

Symptoms of Air sac mites:

• Clicking.
• Open mouth breathing.
• Tail bobbing - which means the bird is trying hard to breath.
• Being less vocal - the only sounds she would make were these tiny squeaks, and when I compared her noise to a bird that was infected with air sac mites on a YouTube video, I was convinced she had mites too.
• Less activity and being fluffed up most of the time - Sparrow was fluffed up most of the time too. I read on and learned that it was to conserve heat
• Weight loss - I noticed this the first time I held her, she was significantly lighter and skinnier than my finches at home.

Sparrow had all of these symptoms, and most of them were made obvious after her constant fluttering when I neared her cage.

I will get some medicine tomorrow if I can find it in my local pet stores, preferably containing Ivermectin which is said to work better than SCATT. From how the little sparrow is behaving, I'm not feeling very hopeful that she will last long enough before I get the medicine.

Here the site I got most of my information from: http://www.officialbarrieshuttbudgerigars.com/airsacmites.htm

Week of Birds Compilation

Here is a compilation of pictures all from the week:

Here's a turkey that was eating in my yard on Monday, made a dashing run for the forest when I opened the door.

Hmm. . .got a stash up there?

A small Downy Woodpecker male preening, a little bit of fluff flew off him in the process.

Top and bottom: A Chipping sparrow eating out of the feeder.

Spring arrives.

Squirrel!!

One sunbathing Dark-Eyed Junco also known as a Slate-Colored Junco.

And now moving on to The Strawberry Wars:

Yum. . .scrumptious and juicy strawberries!

Oh no!A greedy Lemon steals the berry for her own eating.

Lime makes a run for it. In the end it was all eaten up, at least everyone got a bite.

Charcoal enjoys a rub on her neck.

And for some reason, she also has a habit of hopping into any available leg or should and just sit there.

The look of da Evil about to strike!
*dah daaah, da dah!* evil music in the background.

Either a Pewee or a Flycatcher. The second time I have spotted one of these birds! I probably most of the time mistake them for Juncos.

Top and bottom: Nuthatches! These are the clearest pictures I have of White-Breasted Nuthatches yet.

There were two of them in all where I was. They were chasing each other and scrambling all over the bark of the tree.

A Norther Flicker jabbing at the ground for insects with its long stout beak.

Lil' Nuthatch getting a good preening.

For some reason it seem like this Nuthatch was trying to stick a feather in the bark. Not really sure what the reason was. . .

Looking for something?

Chipmunk, frozen, in sight.

There was one perched in a bench on the neighbor's property too.

Playful Chickadees chasing each other.

A Red Cardinal singing, if you have never heard their song before it is astonishingly bold and pretty.