Week beginning 1 December 2001

The camera is having a wee break... we have lost the ability, hopefully temporarily only, to get the pictures off it!

The Starlings have gone, two flown, one dead. Sadly I didn't return to check they'd all left and one just didn't and presumably the parents were too busy with the other two to continue coming back to the one which didn't join them in the trees.

The Paradise ducklings are now fully feathered, one of each sex, the female has about a third of her head now covered in white feathers. The rest of their family has been flying around and sitting out on the flats. There are four of the other children left. Ours haven't taken to the skies yet, although I've seen both leave the ground for a short burst during the weekend for the first time.

We've put our two yearling bulls out with four heifers each, to try them out without trying them too hard. One had an extra on Sunday, since the river was so high for so long, that I was unable to mate her by insemination, so we brought her to one of the bulls instead. (We have to cross our bridge to get to the cattle yards out by the road and there was a fairly major flood.)