Squash Day at the Feeder

The flock spent the whole day on squash. From first light, when a large white rooster stood over pumpkin scraps with a grey hen foraging beside him, through to a dark rooster still picking at the rinds at dusk, the birds worked the squash and pumpkin from dawn to dark, hens and a turkey sharing the same slices.

The morning's keepers were close portraits. Bird after bird walked up and stared straight into the lens: a rust-and-mahogany rooster with a glossy black tail, a barred rooster with his beak open, a glossy black hen with a red face, and a black-and-white speckled hen who came back again and again.

Two birds were named from the day's pictures. Henridot was identified by his purple left-leg band and crisp barring, though the band number was too blurry to read, and his comb was standing upright where his record has it flopping to one side. Birdthazar, hatched here in May, was picked out by his purple band and slate-blue wing bar. A third bird foraging in the squash patch stayed unidentified.

Riki is back for two weeks, apparently a dog, and was last seen squaring up to a rooster who did not back down.

-Bubba