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Watch the birds

And watch the birds here too…

Hope to see some here too …

If they’ve been raised alone, they tend to think that they are part of whatever flock they’re around. Sometimes they’ll believe that they’re human, a chicken or even a dog. They’re just plain quackers!

Duck Facts

• A male duck is called a drake, a female is called a duck. Babies are called ducklings.
• Ducks are related to geese and swans. The duck is the smallest of them all and have shorter necks and wings and a stout body. Ducks can live from 2-12 years, depending on the species.
• Ducks have webbed feet, which act like paddles. A duck waddles instead of walking because of its webbed feet.
• Ducks’ feet have no nerves or blood vessels. This means ducks never feel the cold, even if they swim in icy cold water.
• Ducks provide us with eggs, meat and feathers.
• Ducks’ feathers are waterproof. There is a special gland that produces oil near the tail that spreads and covers the outer coat of feathers. Beneath this waterproof layer are fluffy and soft feathers to keep the duck warm.
• Ducks keep clean by preening themselves with their beaks, which they do often. They also line their nests with feathers plucked from their chest.
• Ducks were once wild until they were domesticated by the Chinese many hundreds of years ago.

Breeds

Most farm ducks are of a species called “Pekin”. It is harder to tell a male from a female with the Pekin ducks because they look almost the same. Pekin ducks have white or cream coloured feathers and orange coloured bills. They do not fly and do well in captivity. They are also excellent for egg and meat production.

Ducks as Pets

Pet ducks will entertain you with their antics and eat pesky slugs and snails. A female will produce abundant eggs.

To look after ducklings all you need is a large cardboard box, some shavings or straw, a heat lamp, a feeder and a waterer. As they grow, they will need more space and less heat. Keep an eye on the birds; if they stay away from the heat, turn it off, if they get their pen messy quickly, they need more bedding and more space. By 5 or 6 weeks they can probably be outside all the time in good weather.

Ducks need a deep enough water bowl so they can dip their heads in water 2 or 3 times a day. They need to wash their eyes otherwise they can get dry eyes and cataracts.

A single pet duck can make a great pet but you should make sure you have enough time to devote to your duck. Make sure you get your duck very young or incubate the egg yourself and be the first thing he or she sees when it hatches. You will need to spend a lot of time bonding with your duck so that you and your family become the duck’s flock. So you’ll need to devote yourself to playing and just being with your duck everyday, on top of the usual cleaning and feeding duties.

Ducks are social animals and will suffer if they don’t have companionship. So if you can’t make this commitment for the full 12 or so years a duck can live, you should get two or more ducks.

** The article is not written by me.

Species — There are about 300 varieties of squirrels around the world. In North America there are ten. Examples are the red/brown squirrels that live in evergreen trees and eat seeds of pinecones and the gray squirrel which lives in woods of oaks, ashes, and beeches and mainly eats beech nuts and acorns.

Sizes — Their sizes vary considerably. For example, the gray squirrel can be up to three time as large as the red squirrel but smaller than a fox squirrel. A recently born gray squirrel is about one inch long and weighs as little as half and ounce to one ounce. The size of an adult gray squirrel is about 18 inches and can weigh up to a pound or more.

Where do they live? Squirrels typically live in trees — in holes in the trunk, or in treetop crow’s nests. The homes in the treetops are called dreys and sometimes consist of two rooms and a nursery!

Reproduction — Squirrels start mating when they are a year old. It takes about six weeks from the time the squirrels mate until the baby squirrels, called kittens, are born. Twice a year, in the spring and at the end of the summer, the female squirrel has two to five kittens.

Eating — During their first seven weeks they will nurse milk, and then they will eat nuts, acorns, wheat, fruit, bird’s eggs, and mushrooms. Sometimes they will also eat leaves, berries, seeds, oak buds, and corn as well as insects, moths, bird eggs and nestling birds. What they eat depends on the time of year. For example, nuts and acorns are typically eaten during the fall. A squirrel needs about two pounds of food a week. If it can’t find it, it will move. When they leave their nests in the summer, young squirrels sometimes need to move to new homes in less crowded woods. The old squirrels drive them away.

Squirrels will typically gather and save nuts and acorns during the last week of autumn, however, they don’t eat most of them. Squirrels need calcium in their diet. Calcium is a mineral necessary for the squirrels to keep healthy teeth to be able to bite into an acorn. Without strong teeth, they can starve to death.

How old do they live? Squirrels can live up to 10 or 12 years. After six years, they are considered old squirrels.

Predators — Squirrels in early spring savor the flowers and buds of the wildflowers while risking sudden death by swooping hawks. The typical squirrel predators are, in addition to the red-tailed hawks, wildcats, foxes, owls, raccoons, and opossums.

Swans are birds of the family Anatidae, which also includes geese and ducks. Swans are grouped with the closely related geese in the subfamily Anserinae where they form the tribe Cygnini. Sometimes, they are considered a distinct subfamily, Cygninae. Swans usually mate for life, though ‘divorce’ does sometimes occur, particularly following nesting failure. The number of eggs in each clutch ranges from three to eight.

Swans are beautiful, white, long necked birds of lake and river shores. Swans are larger than geese and are recognizable by their long, arched necks. They dip head and neck into the water to feed on bottom vegetation, also browsing on shore grasses.

Swans may live up to 35 years, and they mate for life. The young, called cygnets, are pale gray in color and have lead-colored bills.

The largest swan is the trumpeter swan which breeds from Alaska to the Rocky Mountain states.

Swans are a part of the Duck family. A group of swans is called a bevy.
They fly in a V formation or line.