Summer’s here (at last)
January 26th, 2009 - Posted in sheep, wildlife - by Sarah|
Well we have had nearly a week without rain so hopefully our wet and miserable spring is well and truely over. The veggie garden is about a month behind where it was this time last year so we are crossing our fingers for a run of good weather now or we’ll be finding ways of eating our tomatoes green.
The heat and sunshine has triggered the cicadas into their summer chorus. Brendhan rarely even seems to notice them but I’m thankful that they stop at night and that we now have one complete layer of plaster acting as a noise barrier between them and us.
cicada shell
Cicadas live most of their lives underground as grubs with big digging attachments on their front legs. When the time comes (and it’s different for each variety) they crawl out and use their grub body as a ready made chrysalis. The shell often stays stuck to its twig or leaf after the cicada flies away and I found this perfect example when cutting some brambles the other day.
cicada
There is a small hole in the underside between the legs where the adult has somehow managed to crawl out. Given their size it’s amazing that they leave the shell so intact but I think that they are still very soft and flexible when they first emerge. Here is one that I snapped last summer. It’s smaller than many of those we get here and is also an unusual colour – most are a shade of green.
The dry spell has also given the chance to do some general sheep maintainance – foot trimming and dagging. The outer part of a sheep’s foot grows like a human nail and unless they have lots of rocky ground to wear it down on it will get too long and cause painful foot problems. So every 3 months or so we round them up and trim their feet.
Brendhan and Cardigan
Dagging is basically cutting off the wool around a sheep’s bottom. This helps them to keep clean and makes it less likely that they will get flystrike (where flies lay eggs in the wool and the maggots start eating the sheep). We also give them a dusting with derris dust to discourage flies.
They all seemed to be very well, even Cardigan’s enlarged udder has gone away. She’s pictured here with Brendhan. All the adult sheep were fairly relaxed about being handled but for the lambs it was their first time and while they have no fear of us they did not like being sat on their bums or having their feet played with.
Once each sheep has been done they are let out of the pen but they all hang around for their sheep nuts like kids getting a sweetie (lolly for those in NZ) after a visit to the doctor.
… and then there were two
February 23rd, 2008 - Posted in ducks, self-sufficiency, sustainable living, wildlife - by Sarah|
When I walked down to the paddock this morning instead of being greeted by a chorus of quacks there was just a large, white, motionless lump lying on the bank of the stream. One of our ducks had been attacked and killed by an unknown predator. We suspect that it was a New Zealand Falcon as we saw one flying above us yesterday. We hope so as the Falcon is an extremely rare bird (rarer than the Kiwi) and we’d much rather lose a creature to an endangered local than to someone’s uncontrolled pet dog or cat.
I quacked a few times in the hope of locating any still alive and was answered from the sheep paddock by two very tense and nervous ducks. They stuck very close to me while I rebuilt the enclosed pen we used to keep them in and ushered them into their house. The chickens were very upset too and took a couple of hours to settle. The forth duck, Stumpy, is officially MIA but as it would be about a tenth the weight of the large ducks we are assuming it was carried away to be eaten.
Still, it’s not all bad news as the kill was very clean and the wound was on the ducks back. So this afternoon Brendhan spent half an hour plucking and cleaning it and it is currently in the oven roasting for our dinner. Mmmm…..
