Chicken selfies
Teej pointed to this site a couple of threads ago: chicken.photos. Yes, .photos is a top level domain now. From the about page:
The system consists of a Canon 7D, a speed flash, a Raspberry Pi, and an ultrasonic motion trigger.
Whenever a chicken (or any other animal) passes in front of the motion sensor, the Pi snaps a photo on the camera, which in turn fires the speed flash. Once the photo is taken, the Pi downloads the photo from the camera’s SD card and uploads it to our website. The photo is then tweeted and potentially minted as an NFT.
Everything is protected in waterproof housing and uses custom designed PCBs for power and signal routing between the components. It uses the gphoto2 library to interact with the camera, and CircuitPython for the firmware on the Pi.
I still do not understand NFTs. As far as I can tell, you’re buying…bragging rights?
So, they’re motion-sensor selfies. I like the sort of milky, porn-y soft focus. I reckon that’s damp on the waterproof housing. It gives them an otherworldly look.
It’s worth reading their About page. Oh, and looking at all the lurrvly chickens.
August 2, 2022 — 7:15 pm
Comments: 11
We saw the kitties…!
Our favorite cat rescue finally had an open day – first time since the lockdown. And it was packed. People are obviously thirsty for the old normal.
It’s a very long way for us to go when there are cat rescues nearer, but we particularly like this one.
No, we’re not shopping for a puss, we just like to hang out with them. The British cat rescue is a zen place. None of these rows of cages with sad kitties waiting on death row. They’re open and fenced. The cats swan around as they please, with cat trees and boxes and toys and litterboxes at regular intervals.
The cats don’t fight. It’s quite remarkable. We’re told it’s because no cat regards it as his territory.
This time, the poor cats were completely traumatized by so many elderly white women running after them talking baby talk. Most of them hid under or behind the buildings. A few swanned around and hissed if you got too close. It was a hot day, so many were in a foul mood.
It was wonderful.
I know what you’re thinking. “Weasel, that’s the ugliest damn cat I ever saw.” Well, nuts to you, Mister Skeptic. There was a lady with a hedgehog rescue booth there, too.
July 20, 2022 — 7:54 pm
Comments: 9
The Year of the Pigeon
Excuse me if I’m bleary; we were startled awake in the wee hours by a pigeon. Pigeons. There was a lot of flapping and hoo-hooing.
It was so loud, I was sure it was a bird loose in the bedroom, but it warn’t. It was perched by an open window making a terrific racket.
Might have been multiple pigeons. Was probably sex-motivated.
Zo! In the last hour, two senior members of the Cabinet – the Secretary of State for Health & Social Care and the Chancellor of the Exchequer – have resigned. The is big and important, but I’m damned if I can tell you what it means.
An immediate coup? Maybe. Or maybe they’re distancing themselves in case of a coup in the near future.
What can I say? I am, after all, a ferriner. I can only tell you this has been a dreadful government and more dreadful people still are waiting in the shadows.
Doooooom!
July 5, 2022 — 6:49 pm
Comments: 12
These are not my pigeons
Today has been a day of pigeon drama. When I got to work early, one of the little ones was on the ground by the front door, looking stunned. I could see mama pigeon perched above watching him and I thought to myself, let nature take its course, Weasel. I found the other one had flown off (never to return, Wikipedia tells me).
About an hour later, when he hadn’t moved from the spot, I lost my nerve, brought him upstairs and put him back in the nest. After all, one of them was several days younger than the other, so perhaps this one was not quite ready.
Both mom and dad turned up to feed him, several times all morning. That in itself is unusual – we might see one of them, once, feeding the chicks. So I figured they were helping him build strength to try again. Which he didn’t seem at all inclined to do.
Until these two showed up.
These two are not the parents. They are totally different birds. I’ve never seen them before. They began to peck and pinch and kick the baby and make him squeak. I had never heard of any sort of bird community parenting – does it really take a village to raise a pigeon? – but I assumed they were encouraging him to fly off. Concerned aunties, maybe. It seemed awfully cruel, but I thought to myself, let nature take its course, Weasel.
The little one was ducking under the geraniums, squeaking and squirming and refusing to fly off and I lost my nerve again. Spooked them away.
I raised the blinds so they could see me better and waved at them. I shoo’d them off half a dozen times, at least. Eventually, they stopped coming back, though they did investigate the window box at the far left for a while (there are three).
You know what I think? I think they were trying to kick him out and steal that primo nesting spot. The internet won’t tell me if pigeons ever do that.
I’ve watched this little bird from egg to ugly mutant and I wasn’t about to see him harmed just as he was looking like a proper bird.
Things were stable when I left. Mom had been back to feed him again. He was stretching his legs and his wings and looking a lot more capable.
Thing is, I don’t work tomorrow. I will probably never know quite how this turns out. When I go in Thursday, there’s likely to be nothing to see, no matter what the outcome.
Except possibly a pigeon sitting on eggs again. They mate for life, return to the same nest and will hatch littl’uns over and over again, even in Winter, if the food supply is good.
I’m told oatmeal is good for them. Or rice.
June 28, 2022 — 7:40 pm
Comments: 4
More, d’aww…
Yes, they both hatched. I forgot to tell you. You can just make out a second beak at the arrow.
Pigeon number two is several days younger and therefore smaller. I couldn’t really see him until the parents started leaving the nest for longer periods.
Both parents are still highly attentive. I can’t tell if they both feed the babies, but they both babysit. We’re having a bit of a mini-heatwave at the moment and the parents don’t sit on the nest, they sit on the edge and provide shade from the morning sun.
Honestly, smarter than I thought pigeons were.
Have a good weekend!
June 17, 2022 — 7:20 pm
Comments: 5
Meet my cleanup crew
They they go through a lot for this for this. The chicken run is clear around the other side of the house and they have to go through a fence (specifically set up to keep them out) along the way. Anything for those sweet, sweet Friskies.
You will never forget the unmistakable sound of three beaks bouncing off a cat’s bowl. Who needs a Roomba?
p.s. actually, I do. I hate Hoovering. Have any of you got one? Does it work?
June 16, 2022 — 6:51 pm
Comments: 6
Start the weekend with a d’awwww
A couple of weeks ago, I watered the window boxes in the office, turned my back for a moment, and when I turned around again – an egg! Why this daft pigeon decided to lay an egg in wet earth, I don’t know, but it’s not quite as bad a spot as it sounds. There’s a roof overhang, so it stays dry when it rains and she’s relatively protected under all those geraniums.
She laid a second egg two days later. Eighteen days it takes to incubate a pigeon egg and I’ve been watching her cautiously. Sometimes, the male (I assume) comes and sits and gives her a chance to rest and feed. It’s easy to spot the difference: she’s got a dark gray head with white speckles and he’s pale gray.
I hardly ever see the nest without a bird on it, but yesterday she stood up and – behold, baby pigeon! (bottom right). It must have hatched moments before, because it’s still wet and the shell is still there.
Baby pigeons are ugly mutant looking creatures, so I won’t give you a closeup of the little bugger, but I love the look on her face. She’s probably just startled and I’m anthropomorphising, but she looks like a proud mama to me.
By Monday, we’ll see if the other one hatches or is a dud. Good weekend, all!
June 10, 2022 — 6:16 pm
Comments: 3
I promised you livestock
Look at this bad boy! His belt says “Sussex Champion” in gold on blue and he has two little gold tassels hanging down off the bottom. He won best in show and then was auctioned off on the spot. Very exciting.
It’s a variety known as Sussex or Sussex Reds and they are, in fact, a deep red color. I’m told their flesh is delicious, but seemingly rare to find. I’ve never tasted it. We have a neighbor with a herd, but he only sells, like, half a cow at a time and our freezers won’t take it.
We offered to split a half cow with another neighbor, but apparently the cuts you get don’t lend themselves to quartering. No, I don’t really understand, either.
Anyway – lookit the pretty coo!
June 6, 2022 — 7:07 pm
Comments: 4
I don’t believe this…!
Remember that baby badger I posted about earlier this week? The one that ended up in the wildlife rescue?
Durnedyankee posted a link to this Daily Mail article and asked if that was our badger being molestered by Johnny Depp? And I said no, that badger is named Freddie and they named ours Bertie, but that is the same wildlife rescue outfit.
Turns out, that is the same badger. The rescue phoned our neighbor today and asked if it was okay to rename it, as Depp wanted to call it Freddie Mercury.
The picture has now made all the papers. I find that unutterably bizarre.
I’m disappointed we didn’t go see the beacons lit last night. I thought we’d watch it on TV. The BBC showed one (1) beacon being lit, after which they walked around and asked people about their feelings.
The absolute state of journalism today.
Have a good weekend, everyone!
June 3, 2022 — 4:49 pm
Comments: 9
The sheep show!
It’s finally here – the Summer agricultural show season! First of the year last Saturday, and it was *huge*. We usually don’t go to this one as it clashes with another one, but it didn’t this year.
Behold – the sheep show. Dude had a little standup routine about each of these sheep and its particular virtues. Different breeds, you see. After which, a sheep popped out of the door in front and he sheared it for us.
Very amusing. If you’d like to see a picture big enough to read all their names – because of course you would – I got you.
There’s another show starting tomorrow. Stand by for livestock…!
p.s. Today was also the start of a four-day national holiday for the Queen’s Jubilee celebrations. They light the beacons tonight (no, Tolkien didn’t make that up). I’d love to see it in person – they may not light them again in my lifetime – but none of the local beacons are convenient to park and walk up. We’ll watch it on TV.
June 2, 2022 — 7:44 pm
Comments: 4