New Snake!

Today we got in the pool after our workout, and noticed a friend swimming in the pool.  We used a 32 ounce water cup to scoop him out and free him out of the pool cage.  Just looked him up, and he's a ring necked snake, only slightly venomous :)

Peafowl Triplets Looking up at Mom

Mama Peafowl brought the 3 tiny peafowl babies to visit for snacks today.  They hung around this afternoon for hours, which was awesome while I sat and read on the computer.  At one point, mom jumped up on the pool cage and the babies were like, uh, mom, do you want us to go up THERE?  So they just hung out below, cute and agitated :)

3 New Baby Peafowl

We thought we'd seen them all for the year, and then a new mom just brought her 3 new ones to show them off.

These are tiny - smaller than the other 4 we've seen so far.

Baby Duck First Flight!

Yesterday, September 7th, was the first day we saw one of the duck family fly.  The family is now six baby ducks (mom left LOL), and yesterday one of the six took off flapping like crazy and flew a few low laps over the pond and the beach.  He made at least three laps, probably four, and landed in a bit of a crash landing in the northeast cove water.  The other ducks swam quickly over to "Flapper" and congratulated him in duck language on his dangerous and brave flight!

So amazing getting to see all this from the "control room" window where we're always hanging out.

Mark says Flapper did another lap this morning :)

UPDATE: FLAPPER FLIES AWAY!

We hoped it would never happen, and then in an instant he's gone. It's Flapper, he's flown away. Fortunately Mary was watching and saw his exit or else we would have thought something awful happened to him. Nope. In what appeared to be one of his low orbit "Wright Brothers" test flights around the big P2 pond Flapper powered up his engines and took off towards the east, away he went.

It was a joyous and sad moment as our little baby duck flew away, out into the cold cruel world. His five brothers and sisters swam out to the middle of the pond as if they were looking for him to come back but alas little Flapper did not return. Hopefully he found a big pond to splash down in.

Mary promised me Flapper would return Sunday (tomorrow) but I'm doubtful. He's gone out into the world to discover his fame and fortune. Good luck little guy. Hope we see you again. Thanks for coming to P2.

Q U A C K ! ! !

ANOTHER UPDATE: QUACK QUACK QUACK! FLAPPER CAME BACK!

Low and behold, we awoke sunday morning and to our joy and surprise little Flapper had rejoined his brothers and sisters, six little brown ducks swam over to the corn pile to nom breakfast, then they swam to the far end of the pond, got up on the shore in one of their favorite spots and took a nap.

Peace and Flapper returned to P2. Life is good!