Pheasant Chicks - News from the farm

These are now 2 days old and we're raising them as part of volunteer program for the Wildlife Council.  I will nurture them for 6 weeks and then release them into the wild..  There is a male pheasant croaking in the garden... thinking I'm sure "Bring on the girls!" Yesterday I was at the eye surgeon's when DH brought them home but I had a pen set up in the laundry room..  He opened the box and they immediately scattered and were so tiny they went right through the wires on the pen.  When I arrived he was dashing to and fro trying to gather them but the faster he collected them the faster they escaped..  Of course Morris is fascinated by them.

There is a poem which starts "My heart is like a singing bird..."  I always think of that line when I count the things in my life which bring me great joy... High on that list are singing birds.... In my garden now there is a   symphony of singing birds including robins, song sparrows, white crown sparrows, chipping sparrows, meadow larks, doves, etc. etc. but my favorite are the little house wrens.  They sit low on the apricot tree and I get to watch them puff up and sing with great gusto... My bird book describes it as a "bubbling" song and indeed it is.  One of my cottage blocks must have bird song as a theme.

There will be more eye surgery (partly due to the injury and partly due to the macular)  and my surgeon assured me that it's a necessary thing so now it has to be scheduled and move on...