04 December 2008

Bird life and death (or maybe not)


This skein of Canada Geese treated me to a noisy fly-past this morning, but Tuesday's bird encounter was a bit more disturbing. The dog found this Ruffed Grouse by the side of the small barn. I got to the bird before he did it any damage and picked it up to put it out of his reach. I had thought it was dead, but when I picked it up it seemed to be vibrating with life, so perhaps it had just knocked itself out by flying into one of the barn windows.


I hope it woke up before the local fox found it. Part of me feels that if I were being truly self-sufficient I should have wrung the bird's neck and turned it into supper in true Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall style. But I'm just not ruthless enough. And it wasn't big enough to feed four of us, anyway...

6 comments:

Jan said...

Hi Cooking,
I love the birds and will enjoy whatever you have to say or show about them. Winter is when I spend time on the many species I get in my yard...and summer is, well, for the garden of course! Jan

Lucy Corrander said...

It's really disturbing when this kind of thing happens.

Not only do you worry at the time about what you should do, you carry on worrying afterwards whether you made the right decision. And the answer is so hit and miss, sometimes there isn't one.

Our noticeable immigrant geese are Brent Geese, arriving from Scandanavia and Siberia. It gives an international feel to the beginning of winter!

Lucy

Anonymous said...

Always good to save a life - and makes the saver feel good too!

Anonymous said...

I've loved reading about your Canadian adventure. I feel very envious. Are you going to get any livestock? (sorry if I have missed it if you are.)

Amanda said...

Strange you should mention it, Chicken Lover, but one of next year's planned projects is to convert one of the stalls in the small barn into a chicken house and get some hens. We'll probably use electric poultry fencing to make a moveable run in the orchard for them.

Anonymous said...

I would love to do what you are doing, esp the chicken bit (can you guess from my name?) OH had agreed in principle some time ago, but our garden set-up isn't ideal and I am worried about the neighbours and who will look after them when we are away.