Check out the baby birds! Both wild and domesticated. A robin built her nest in the bush by our front door, and it was so fun to see the baby birds grow! At first they didn't open their eyes, and they would just crane their necks upward blindly, waiting for mom to come back with that mouthful of worms. I never actually saw her feed them. Every time I went outside to watch, she was wary. I thought I could outsmart her by walking about 30 feet away (with binoculars). That didn't work. So I sat down and waited, turning away to look like I wasn't watching; she wasn't fooled. Eventually, of course, I got bored and gave up. Mother robin won that little contest. I never saw them leave the nest. One morning they were just gone.
About the same time I discovered the baby robins, I picked up our ten Aracauna chicks from the Paris Farmer's Union. They were shipped from somewhere in Ohio. Strange. We had them in the dining room for a while, so we could watch them do their crazy chick tricks (peck ground, flap wings, drink water, flop over and fall asleep, repeat). That got old pretty fast, so we moved them to the porch yesterday. They are growing FAST--a lot faster than I imagined. Guess we'd better hurry up and build their coop. I'm trying to teach them that I'm their mother, but like the mother robin, they cannot be fooled. I took them outside the other day for their first romp in the dirt, and they loved it. They got to try a few new foods. I let them loose in the garden to scratch around, and then I found some worms to feed them. I cut them into little bite-sized pieces with a rock and tried to give each chick a piece. They seemed to appreciate them, but they definitely don't think I'm mom. We're naming them (after female teeny-bop pop stars) as their personalities and physical distinctions emerge: Britney has a deformed foot but is determined to keep up; Hannah Montana is the smallest but has the most attitude. We have names in mind for the rest, but they have to be earned...
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