The other day a visitor walked across the lawn.

The Great Blue Heron is a strikingly interesting bird.

The heron has come to eat the fish and frogs in the Little Pond. Lily won’t allow that. As elegant as the Great Blue Heron is on it’s tall legs, it is awkward as it lifts off into the sky to fly.

So, I give the heron a head start before I release Lily.

Steve did some measuring and computations. Lily was running at 20 MPH.

Go, Lily!

Good-bye heron!

Steve needed to adjust a bolt on the mineral feeder. Caper offered to help.

First, Caper tasted the vice grip to make sure that it was the right tool for the job.

He suggested to Steve that the vise grip could be better used scratching his head, right between his horn buds.

Sometimes Caper cannot believe his own brilliance. It’s a good thing that Steve listens to him.

It was Pip and Caper’s fourth birthday yesterday! To see what they looked like when they arrived, go here.

Almost exactly two years ago I got a box of chicks in the mail. Happy Birthday, girls! Of those chicks, three were Buff Orpingtons. All of the chicks were named after Gems and these three became Amber, Beryl and Topaz. Amber is my ideal hen. She is friendly, calm and beautiful. During the season, she lays an egg about every other day. I take her to meet classrooms full of children who pet her. Beryl and Topaz are also beautiful. But they are also broody. All the time.

This is what they look like if you deign to remove them from their nests.

Here is a close-up of beautiful, broody Beryl.

Unlike her sister, Amber, I cannot take this chuffed-up hen to storytimes. Nor does she lay eggs. It’s not a big deal to have a couple of useless broodies taking up space. I have enough nesting boxes.

But, a lovely woman named Kim loves Buff Orpingtons, broodiness and all. She also has a coop large enough to accommodate their quirks. Kim came to my Chicken Keeping Workshop last year so I know that she knows what she’s doing. Yesterday Kim and her friend, Diane, drove down from Maine to take my two Orps. She said hello to Agatha. From this photo you can tell she’s a good chicken person.

She gathered up Beryl.

We carried the hens to the crate in her car.

Off the hens went to their new home. Kim lives near the ocean, so the hens will have cool breezes to keep them comfortable, even if they stay broody all summer. But, it looks like the change in scenery just might get them up and out and active.

They immediately took dust baths.

Then they surveyed their new realm.

Beryl and Topaz are in the right place for them, and now I have the space to keep a couple more of the new chicks!

Yesterday we were all jealous of Scooter’s ability to live in the moment in the sun (and not feel as if he has to be doing something else of more importance.) Today we can be in awe of a chick’s capacity to fall asleep. On her feet. Regardless of what is going on around her.

I don’t know about you, but I’m feeling sleepy…

Bliss.