A new family member

I have many things to catch up on (CHA, anyone?), but for now, this short post will have to do.

Upon our return from CHA, we were thrilled to adopt a new duck.  This is Eddie, the super cute Call duck.  He was turned in to a shelter in Seattle, fostered by a friend of ours, and flown to Phoenix last Sunday (that's about 4 weeks in one sentence!).  He's a male Call duck and is very tiny...only 1.5 pounds!  To give you some perspective, Dewey, our Mallard, is 3 pounds.  We always thought she was small, but she towers over Eddie!  I know it's difficult to see, but he really does have eyes!  His eye is black and is at the front of that white stripe on the side of his head.  He's been molting recently and his head feathers are coming in a brilliant green...so pretty!  And he is sporting a cute little drake curl on the top of his tail now too.

Eddie is more content with being with people right now and is a little afraid of our ducks so we're introducing them slowly, just a little more each day.  Here's a picture with Eddie on my lap (leg) in their outdoor pen last Sunday.  You can see how tiny he really is! 

Until Dewey & Daisy welcome him unconditionally, he's spending a lot of time in the office with us each day.  So, word of warning:  if you call you may hear his cute little raspy boy-quack in the background! 

One last thing:  you may remember me telling you about the duck house that Todd built for Dewey & Daisy last summer.  You can see half of it in this picture of me with Eddie. It has nesting areas on both sides of the door and the side roof is on a hinge so we can reach in to get the eggs.  And I'm happy to report that after 6 months of them never even going near the doorway, they are both laying their eggs in the nesting boxes.  Finally! 

Comments

[stefanos]

nice duck