As Ruff lekking season ends, the next chapter of the Ruff season begins, as we currently have 40 chicks to rear, with hopefully many more to come. 16 of our chicks have already been banded and are nearing being kept outdoors. This video highlights how we start them. Ruff chicks are very fragile little birds that require careful and thoughtful husbandry. I feel we have created a solid protocol this season and the chicks are doing well. Getting them to eat and drink requires visual stimulation, which we achieve by floating morsels of our pellet as well as live mini mealworms and live aquatic worms, which they love, of course. We keep a slow and continuous drip of water into the dish to keep things fresh, and offer a small dish of our pellet soaked, which they begin eating out of within a few days. Another key element is misting their pine branch hideaway throughout the day. You can see in the video a chick taking droplets from one of the needles. Care must be taken not to overheat these little tundra dwellers, so we keep a close eye on the temperature and keep the air moving in the room. Keeping an uneven terrain in the brooder helps with proper leg development and keeping them strong. They grow very rapidly and these Ruff chicks will be moved to the next stage of rearing, a larger room with a sand bottomed floor, in just a short time from now. (fb)

While doing an aviary check, we clearly passed too close to the nest of this very annoyed pair white-faced whistling ducks! Without obvious this giveaway, this nest may not have been found any time soon as it is completely inconspicuous inside of a dense grass bed. As interesting as the threat display of the pair is, what really captured our attention is the foot tapping by both the male and female. What might be the purpose for doing this? (fb)