Wednesday 14 April 2010

Spring, Swallows and an occasional Partridge

A few sunny days and managing to see a swallow indeed make it feel that spring is eventually here.

For us it meant time in the garden and for the ladies it meant that the mean man would be turfing them off their nests and broodiness, locked out of the nestbox and no chance to try and hatch imaginary eggs. The reality is that now back from the joys of Cornwall those girls needed to start earning their corn again and lay some eggs!

Reality was that with the sunshine and bribe of a few mealworms and no access to nestboxes Ruby and Stella were soon out of broody mode. Stubborn as ever Harriet took a further day to realise the fruitlessness of the cause so she is also back in the flock so just on countdown for some eggs now.

We did have a most amusing interlude with the brief arrival and departure of a red-legged partridge. The partridge was caught in north London, semi-tame or stunned not sure but it (for we knew not whether it was male or female) however we took him in on a temporary basis.


Partridge did not appreciate being in the run however had a very good feed and then spent the evening with the girls in the garden plodding around. Finally partridge walked down the garden, flitted up onto the fence and went into next doors garden. Although we've not seen the bird again we have heard calling so partridge is still in the area.

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