The sounds of the Farm

It is nice waking up to the sounds of a farm. There's lots of quack-quack-quack from the ducks, chi-chi-chi from the male guineas, buckwheat-buckwheat-buckwheat from the female guineas, and ... not sure how to "pronounce" it, but "Raaaaaaahhhhr" from Pate, the African gander. Pate seems to announce the sunrise better than everybody else combined.

Today I woke up to the above. It is a lot better than waking up to the increased AM noise of a city street, subway, expressway, highway, etc. In my opinion of course. I often wake up to coyotes howling, too. They can be annoying, but in a different way.

Normally I can slip in and out of sleep from that first wakeup call until 8am or so. At this time of year, sunrise isn't all that early, and I wake as fast as vultures anyway -- I need the sun to warm the ground before I get up.

Today Pate seemed to be particularly noisy. I'd drift back into a nice dream, only to be interrupted by more of his morning wakup. Raaaoooorrr! Rooaorrr! Ruh-ruh-ruh. Shut up already! I'll let you out at 8am like I normally do. Zzzzz....

Raaaoooooo! Zzzzzz.... Raaaoooooh! Zzz....

It's funny how much sound carries when it's foggy and rainy... it makes it sound like Pate is so close!

RAAAAAOOOHHHHH!

And with that final, rude, awakening yell, I realize that he IS close, and in fact standing outside my window, with 12 other geese in tow.

Pate and the rest of the gang has escaped the safety of the coop! I put on clothes, slip into shoes, run outside, and look for signs of carnage... no feathers, coop is not shredded to pieces... door is OPEN.

I count: 1-2-3-4-5-6 female hybrid geese, 1-2 male hybrid geese, Pate, Foie, Gras, Madonna, and Fred the geese. I herd them back towards the coop. I chastise them but they heed not. 1-2-3-4 female Black Indian Runners (one is "Snoop"), 1 male Black Indian Runner. (Phew, I just recently acquired "Ozzie" the lone male Black Indian Runner, don't know what I'd tell the young woman who gave him up to me recently should he have disappeared.) 1 male fawn and white Runner (Godzilla), 1 female fawn and white Runner (Bambie), 1 female brown Runner (Hershey). Ozzie's Pekin girlfriend. Two Rouen males, one named Frenchie. Two male Pekins named Showball and Jack. Three female Pekins named Michelle. One rescue female Pekin. 1-2-3-4-5 Black and White muscovy females. 1-2 Black and White muscovy males. 1-2 Brown and White muscovy females. 1-2-3-4 Lavender guineas. 1-2 buff dundotte guineas. 1-2 purple guineas. Hmm... one goose missing... it is Ceasar, the Roman Tufted goose. I eventually find her sitting on a nest inside the coop.

A parent of twins has no difficulty identifying his/her own children. So it is with my birds -- I know the exact count, breed, and gender of all animals. Each matters. Everybody is accounted for. No losses.

Maybe I should buy a lottery ticket.

goings on

I hate to report about losses so suffice to say the lack of posts was because of all the losses....

In more happy news, I scored a bunch of muscovies -- 5 female, 1 male -- from Silicon Valley Wildlife Rescue. There were more, about a dozen total, but, well, I was greedy and took the females and just one male. Too many muscovy males presents a problem. There was also a female Khaki Campbell that came with the team. Lots of eggs are in my future!

The geese are starting to lay. I have 10 females, so I will soon be awash with not only duck eggs but goose eggs. They make for good barter material at the local farmer's market.