A Smew I Knew...

It was another warm, sunny day today. Very unseasonable they say, but no one is complaining! I had a nice, varied day. Got to feed the birds in the Outside Duckery, which is a series of pens for breeding birds and rearing out young ones. Right now it is occupied mostly by breeding birds, including Koloa, Laysan, yellow-billed, Pacific grey, Chinese spot-billed, St. Georgia pintail and winged-faced wood ducks, maned and Abyssinian blue-winged geese, a pair of Japanese Cranes, an East African Crested Crane, red shoveler and  European shoveler.  Their  pens are mostly planted in long grass. There are also smew, a sea duck from northern Europe and Russia. Its fun to watch them diving for their food in their large pool. It was nice to take my time in the cool morning air to quietly make the rounds, feeding them and listening to the call of birds around.

 Afterwards we all went to dig up around the flamingo nests to give them loose dirt to work into their nests, which are little mesas of mud.

I also got to help let out four nene goslings that have been in the duckery, It was their first time out in fresh air, sunshine and green grass. They had fixed up a moveable coop for them so they can still go inside and stay warm.