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Growing Like Weeds

August 3rd, 2013

If you remember, the first week of July was a busy week with ducklings and keets hatching out within a few days of each other. The ducklings are being taken care of my Mama Duck and she’s doing a GREAT job. Having a good mother is such a time saver when it comes to baby animals.
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The keets on the other hand are being mothered by me, not my favorite job. It’s just so much work to cart them in and out. If I wanted to keep them inside or in a brooder all the time it wouldn’t be so bad. But I want them to be able to peck in the grass and stretch their wings.  They’ve learned to fly out of their enclosure, so we’re trying to figure out what to do with them to keep them safe from the predators we have around here (namely foxes, but also eagles and ravens).
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One thing I like about summer is that it’s baby season. There are fawns, wild ducklings, little birdies in their nests and wild turkey poults and I’m pretty sure fox kids as well. There are babies everywhere you look!

Have you been noticing little animals out in nature?

11 Comments to “Growing Like Weeds”
  1. Linda on August 3, 2013 at 6:40 am

    This morning I got up just in time to watch a deer and her twin fawns wander through our apple grove in the back yard.

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  2. Adelina Anderson on August 3, 2013 at 8:01 am

    We have a wildlife camera posted by the garden to see what visits. At this time it is a momma deer and her fawn. But this fawn dances around the garden kicking up its legs and launching itself into the air all while the momma deer looks after it. I have also seen the little turkeys bopping around – they look like softballs with head. Too cute!

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  3. Nebraska Dave on August 3, 2013 at 8:07 am

    Susy, yes, babies abound. I have a resident groundhog that last Spring I lovingly named Nebraska Phil after the famous groundhog in Pennsylvania. Later this Spring I realized I should have him Phyllis. :) Little Phil was a cute little thing but I know that he will take after his parents and raid the garden when given a chance.

    Have a great baby keet day.

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    • Susy on August 3, 2013 at 8:49 am

      Yes, baby groundhogs can be a pain. We had a mama that showed her babies my pea patch one year, needless to say, I didn’t have any peas in the freezer that winter. They can sure mow down a garden, especially when there’s a whole family! Love that you changed her name to Phyllis. We had a giant spider we named Winston once, they we saw him with an egg sack and he became Winstonette.

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  4. kimberly on August 3, 2013 at 8:49 am

    Here we have a new set of baby chicks. This is our third batch of babies, the first raised by us and the others by the Mama. Yes, having the Mama in charge makes it sooo much easier and better for the chicks!
    We also have oodles of baby quail doing their thing bebobbing around.

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  5. Lisa Sewell on August 3, 2013 at 9:15 am

    We’ve seen fawns in the woods and crossing the roads (eek!) here in southern Maine. We were in Jackman, Maine about a month ago and saw a couple baby moose with their mammas! A group of baby turkeys and their mamma make an appearance in the yard every now and then. My very favorite is the family of Canadian Geese in my mother’s pond! It is so fun to watch them transform from little yellow puffs to big handsome geese!

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  6. Canned Quilter on August 3, 2013 at 10:24 am

    lip the keets wings just like a chicken and they will not be able to fly out of the pen : )

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  7. Lexa on August 3, 2013 at 12:12 pm

    Lots of white tail deer fawns. Two sets of twins this year. But my favorite are the california mountain quail chicks. We must have at least ten families this year. A couple of the parents have 15+ chicks.

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  8. Myra S. on August 3, 2013 at 4:37 pm

    About 5am one morning this week we heard a fledgling barred owl after staring down a full-grown one in our front yard. Mama maybe? Lots of baby rabbits enjoyed our garden almost more than we did and they are fat and happy now!

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  9. Maybelline on August 4, 2013 at 1:48 pm

    The only birds I watch religiously in my garden are the hummingbirds. Well, I do enjoy watching the mockingbird take rides on the weathervane.

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  10. Colleen on August 4, 2013 at 7:50 pm

    We have been watching a young eagle flying over top of our house and down to a neighboring field. Baby bunnies hopping about. Several species of birds, mostly baby robins, snacking on our blueberries. A doe and her twin fawns came strolling through the other evening, good thing we have fenced the yard and gardens. It’s quite the menagerie.

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This is a daily journal of my efforts to cultivate a more simple life, through local eating, gardening and so many other things. We used to live in a small suburban neighborhood Ohio but moved to 153 acres in Liberty, Maine in 2012.

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