The new blacks and halter training

I havent yet skited about the new black alpacas at Mt Tanga. One of them is Cushla, who is a real sweetie, and another is Black Pearl who is a 'slip of a thing' being one of those mothers who puts everything into raising her cria and consequently looks a bit thin come weaning time.

Cushla:

Black Pearl, cant wait for her to have a boy so I can call him Jack Sparrow!!  LOL!!

The wind was quite strong this morning, and Azzura looks a bit wind swept.  She's been getting quite a bit of exercise lately but you'd hardly guess it from her waist line.. shhhhh...

Trinket, this morning, also in windswept mode.  She is not as happy with the smaller herd size in the road paddock, she's a girl who loves a crowd.

Fresian and Black Narcissus are also in this group - mostly relinquishing mothers and pregnant females not due until April or so next year.  Both are doing well :)

After breakfast in the yards the girls head back out into the road paddock :)

 Freddie has the most amazing eyelashes and in this pic the most ill-fitting halter - fixed immediately after this shot.  He and the other weanlings have started halter training.  Freddie is starring!  Not fussed or bothered about the halter and enjoying cuddle time - hope he does as well when we add the lead rope.

His fleece is lovely, soft and very crimpy with good density - used my chart this morning to identify him as a dark fawn.

100% hatch rate

The last 2 ducklings have managed to get out of their shells, largely under their own steam :)

As you can see the incubator is now in need of some serious cleaning - ducklings start as they mean to go on and have trashed the joint in the minimum time!!

Very pleased with my stats, over 90% fertility and 100% hatch - that's a pretty impressive start to the season!!

And then there were LOTS

They've been busy hatching overnight and there are now 9 little ducklings in the incubator - only 2 left to go, one looks like it will make it, but I'm not too sure about the other :(

Meantime these guys need to move to the brooder :)

Call Ducklings - part 2

Baby #2 has joined us, and looks to be a blue fawn - no surprises there, my best duck is a blue fawn and best drake a blue bibbed, so this could be typeyist duckling in the world!!

Call Ducklings

Our first Call ducklings for the season, hatched today, brothers and sisters on their way :)

I dont do white Call ducks as a rule, so a yellow duckling with a white beak would normally fill me with fear and dread, but the last one I had like this turned out to be a very pretty apricot silver duck, so fingers crossed for this little pretty :)

Kiki and Eddy

Kiki is loving having 'Daddy' home for a few days, catching up on couch time :)

I'm sure she knows its rude to read over someone's shoulder, but without her own laptop, how else is Kiki going to read her e-books??  LOL!!

Spring has Really Sprung

The wattle is now fully out and looking amazing, positively humming with bees!

Wildlife on New Owners Day

Yesterday I attend a 'new owners day' at Accapacca, run by Jim and Connie Styles and Lavender Park's Ruth and Peter King.  Lots of good sound advice, and 'good practice' regimes and routines, practical demonstrations of toenail clipping, halter training, vaccinations and the whole nine yards!!  Came home with my head bursting with info and my belly bulging with excellent food!  Was so busy talking and taking notes that I didnt take any pics of the alpacas!!  I did meet an echidna crossing the road on my way there - stopped to make sure he made it safely to the other side - not a very co-operative subject when it came time for the photo shoot!!  LOL!!

One of the other attendees is a wildlife carer and she had 2 joeys with her.  One was very young and had a broken leg and was not looking all that flash, but this guy seemed to be doing much better and entertained us with his antics!!

Spring has Very Nearly Sprung

Yesterday I snapped the first daffodil, and the prunus blossom in glorious sunshine and mild temperatures, today its returned to winter with a vengeance, very cold, sleet no less, biting wind... horrible.... but before....

Also captured these traffic light geranium leaves.

And the grevillea I meant to photograph the other day when the battery went flat :(

Hellebore still looking good, and the little primulas are blooming on too.

The violets have started to flower and they are mostly white, with some pale blue, will have to get some of the dark violet ones to add to the mix, they look very pretty.

#5 is doing  a good job of mothering her 5 Black East Indies ducklings, her first time in the mothering role.  She hatched 2 herself and accepted 3 more from the incubator ;-D

Meantime, I have my 3 inside, in the brooder.  They are on daily sink swims, but cant get all 3 in frame at once!!  They are spoken for and going to their new home on Sunday.

This is one budgie family.  Mum is the white and blue bird in the background, Dad is the bright yellow and green bird in the middle and the 3 babies are the result of 2 nests, first one produced one female, the second, one male and one female, all very similar colour, lemon and blue/green.

This is an escaped pet, re-captured and now living safely.  Was very tame when he arrived, but now happy to be a 'wild' aviary bird  LOL!!

No, Kiki is not supposed to stand on the arm of the couch!!

Berry Auction and the Trip Home

Back from yet another successful but very tiring weekend at the Berry Auction - first time I've come home empty handed!  Very hard to sit on my hands, as there were some very very nice birds there :)

I stayed with Shayne and Brad - which was wonderful as always - thanks guys :)  In the early morning before I left I took some pics in and around their lovely house:

Shayne's muscovy ducks taking a tour of the garden with me :)

Minto, one of my very favouritist dogs - doing 'spin'.

Prior to taking the above pics I had attempted to get Minto to 'spin', get the background right, hold the camera.... all at the same time - this was the result!!  LOL!!  Something had to give, eh?

Shayne with some of her pekin chicks, later I delivered these babies to a lady and her 2 little kiddies in Goulburn :)  They were very excited about getting new chickens and this time, not all roosters!!

Took the back way home through Neriga, and that means crossing Oallen Ford - always pretty... and good if its not too deep to traverse!!

After Crookwell, it turns to granite country - I love it!  Huge lumps of rock stacked on top of each other, hillsides festooned (big word score right there) with boulders and the lambs leaping about all over them!

 A ewe and lambs crossing (or messing about in) Old Man Gunyah Creek.

Stopped at Pejar Dam, and left the car at the top, wandered down the downstream side and stood on a big rock that was very high up to take this one pic.... then got the heeby geebies and almost had to crawl off it!!  Hopeless!!  Pleased I managed to hold the camera still for this though!

St Barnaba's Anglican Church at Narrara, cold and isolated spot, complete with graveyard that seems to have a very high proportion of children's graves :(

This ewe and 3 lambs have been running loose on Corringle Lane for weeks.  Every second time I travel down it I miss seeing them, and think, good, someone has fixed that problem, but then next time.... and there they were again yesterday.  When I first saw them the lambs were all the same size, but I suspect that 2 are twins and the ewe is their mother, the other little guy has left his mother behind and is now 'dry' and thus not doing nearly as well.  Wishing and hoping their owner will notice them this week and return them to the paddock!!  (I've tried to find the owner, with no luck thus far.)

Home safe and time to enjoy watching some TV with my feet up - Kiki kinda happy to have me back ;-D

Tomorrow I hope to take pics of the new black alpacas, who are settling in nicely and learning about new things... like ducks!!  Today there has been a bit of ducks scaring alpacas, and alpacas scaring ducks which has been funny to watch!!