Friday's Hunt v. 4.12

I don't think I did very well with this week's prompts.  Just wasn't feeling too creative I suppose. Sometimes my brain doesn't want to translate the prompts into fun and exciting pictures!  Still, I gave it a shot, so here we go with:  Starts with L, Landscape, and Key.

Starts with L
Little starts with L.  We acquired two new chickens for the flock this week, and they are really little birds.  Although they are fully grown, they are about the size of a pigeon, maybe a bit smaller. They are two serama hens.  The serama breed of chicken is wildly popular in Malaysia, where they hold beauty contests for them on a regular basis.  The light coloured one is named Cream and the dark coloured one is named Jellybelly.  I decided to keep the names they came with.

Jellybelly is in the classic serama pose with the tail straight up and the wings tilted down.

Cream is very friendly and will even sit on my shoulder.  This gives you an idea of how little she is.

Landscape
I had to go to Nova Scotia today to do some clean-up at my property there, which is up for sale, but I'm moving the rest of my stuff out of it on Monday.  I intended to take a landscape picture there, but I forgot.  At home, it's trees everywhere!  So I decided to try miniature landscapes.  I took a mushroom landscape and a moss landscape.  These are landscapes from the squirrel's eye view!  See the bird feather?

Key
This is the wire gate on my goat and sheep enclosure.  The rebar is attached to the wire and it slips into 3 large hooks that are in the tree trunk - you can only see one of the hooks in this picture.  The "key" is the bungee cord, which keeps it firmly closed just in case some goat gets an idea about how to open it!

Friday's Hunt v 2.12

Again, it's Friday!  This week has gone super fast! But, regardless of speed, it's time for Friday's Hunt, hosted by Eden Hills. As usual, there are 3 topics for today: Starts with L, Week's Favourite, and Critter.

Starts with L

Here is a Lovely Landscape shot that I took today at the Sackville Waterfowl Park.  The trees are still mostly green but you can see hints of yellow.  The temperatures are getting lower at night these days, almost dipping to the freezing point.  Soon the fall foliage will be in its glory.  Also there is a Lake in the picture.

Because she is the herd queen, and demands her proper publicity level, and because her name starts with L, here is Lucky Nickel.  (By the way, she is also a Critter!)

Week's Favourite

My little chipmunk friend, having a rest in the sun.  (Yep, also a Critter!)

Critter

Usually I post cute, cuddly critters, like my goats and sheep, or birds (and I already posted two of those!).  For the critter category, I'm posting something a little different.  This critter is a shrew. There are quite a few shrew species in Canada and it's difficult to tell them apart unless you're an expert, which I'm not.  The only thing I can tell you for sure about this shrew is that it's dead.  I turned it over so that it would be more like it looks when it's alive.  It is most likely the Masked Shrew, or Cinereous Shrew (Sorex cinereus) simply because that is the most common species.

Unfortunately, our cats seem to kill shrews more than any other animal.  I have seen a few dead voles, and the odd dead mouse, and I've never seen them with a dead bird.  However, I have seen a LOT of dead shrews.  We try to keep both cats in at night - Izzy is an outdoor cat in general due to her problems with the concept of the litter box, but we try to keep her in the garage at night - but we aren't always successful.  You can identify a shrew by its very long, pointy nose and its lack of cute round ears, such as you see on mice.  They have very tiny eyes.

I don't know why the cats seem to favour shrews.  Are they easier to catch?  I have no idea.  Cats won't eat shrews because they emit an unpleasant smell that cats don't like. Poor little shrews.  I quite like shrews because they are insectivores and eat lots of bugs that might otherwise damage my plants. I wish that the cats would leave the shrews alone.