Daydream thread... without the rose-tinted specs

choille

Possibly a crow?

I_have_spoken

I expected the thunder and rain overnight and was out staking the perennials last night, but so-far nothing!

Better_Days

Well we had thunder lightning and heavy rain at about 4am. Daft as a brush lurcher lost the plot totally and Mr BD had to get up with him while he was dribbling, shaking and pacing (the dog not Mr BD!). I missed it all as I was blotto with a sleeping tablet.;)

Old dog now too deaf to hear the thunder so she is OK apart from being puffy in the heat. Already pretty warm again.

ferretkeeper

Dave I sometimes find shells like that, we have plenty of crows here, which I hadn't considered, I wondered if it might be a fox? Once I cleaned out an old bird house and found a load of duff old eggs, I left them beside the house overnight and the next day they'd gone, yuk!

Thanks for the hatching comments, I'm sure it's humidity too. choille, you are quite right, the little ones don't survive long if you had to help them out of the shell. But against my better judgement I did it anyway and I do have two mega bouncy little chicks, the one with splayed legs is a lot better and the other is like speedy Gonzales!

I have an all singing and dancing incubator that says temp and humidity are one figure, then I've put a cheapo little digital thermometer and humidity monitor inside which is saying it's a few degrees less warm and not as humid...which do I believe?!

I did notice the hourly turning was not hourly at all, it turned often but it was more random. Can incubators be re calibrated? Annoying cos I've hardly used it, lent it out loads and everyone else had perfect hatches...

Keep missing the thunder and lightning, doesn't wake me, DH says it's thunderous every night though!

We've got some welcome rain this morning, we've been moving piles of earth and compost and even yesterday it was bone dry just below the surface. I've got lots more plants in and no water butts by the house to do the watering, that's my next job.

Well back to it I suppose, it's not wet enough to keep us indoors!

choille

I once made a hobble out of pipe cleaners for a chick- successfully I may add - It worked. If there's no grip on a surface where the chicks are housed their legs can splay.
I miss not having chicks......and puddy cats.
Off to swill out a holiday home.....................

COOLTRIKERCHICK

morning all,


piddled down last night, hubby said he heard thunder in the distance, I didn't so I must have totally out of it lol
stopped raining now... but the ground is soggy and boggy a bit..


supposed to be going to small auction this morning, but got up a bit late, an cant be bothered now..lol..

alfie_1

morning all... dave.... maybe thats the problem, im getting fussier having kissed absolute toads in the past....:rotfl: we had one flash,one clap and a piddle of rain last night more action outside a pub at closing time.......:D im late going to work but needed a lie in so i did it is lovely and fresh out today. i started to mow last night but mower said "no" in the past when i had eggs under hens [never used an inc] the odd one struggled but i kept spraying with warm water and half would make it.. mind you i had a hen that would sit on pebbles if you put em under her..:rotfl: she hatched everything from ornamental pheasant ,turkeys,ducks and chooks... i have a pic of her with a ginormous turkey following her round ....:) old dog had another funny turn last night but if i keep her calm her breathing calms. right i hope all you bods have a good/productive/relaxing/whatever day , im off to earn my keep

lostinrates

Davesnave wrote: »

What animal would steal 3 eggs, take them to exactly the same place in the middle of a field, open them and consume the contents, but leave most of the shell intact?

That's what I found while pulling a few ragwort that got past me earlier.

The eggs were large for a wild bird and light blue-ish.

I'm stumped.

Not my dogs. They eat the shells too. ( from hens not wild birds)

But feral cats here often take them to a bit of field they like, Not three on the same day usually. ( from chickens again) from wild birds I can imagine this would be a possible.

alfie_1

owls and buzzards will take eggs and usually eat in open ground. as creatures of habbit they often use same "dining table"... also rooks/crows do the same. they are safer eating where they have an upright fast exit if disturbed....

Davesnave

ferretkeeper wrote: »

Dave I sometimes find shells like that, we have plenty of crows here, which I hadn't considered, I wondered if it might be a fox?

I think it has to be a large ground-dwelling bird, and after finding this image I'm going with pheasant:

http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/706147

Looked just like that.

I just wonder why they were brought to exactly the same place for consumption. Maybe they weren't. Perhaps the bird was 'taken short' and just laid 'em there? I've found a pheasant nest before, but it was where I'd expect, in shelter at the bottom of a field bank.