Guinea Fowl CapersKING OF BLOGS

I have spent the better part of today, hanging out the window and lurking in the garden, trying to "study" the guinea fowl. They are, I've decided, the most hopeless of parents. The ones next door who produced their lot a few weeks ago - six in all - have managed to lose four. I suspect three were taken by cats or the sparrowhawk, but the other one they simply lost. Off went the family while one little creature was left behind - peeping frantically all day long, running up and down along the garden wall. By the end of the day the peeping had stopped and I imagine from the unhappy "Oh!" expressed by the neigbhour that the poor mite hadn't made it.

Yesterday, amidst much excitement, we discovered we had four babies in our garden. By this morning there were only three. Mind you, the one had looked very poorly and the screeching and cackling in the night was also indicative that something probably snatched the weakest one since it's not around today. I'm inclined to be like a mother hen with all the babies about, but I realise I stress myself out totally while the guinea parents just get on with it. What, oh, we've lost one, well, there we go. Sometimes I think life must be a whole lot easier just living in the now with no tangible past or future - just this moment. I'm alive, I'm dead. There's food, there's isn't. I've got six babies, now I've got five. That's not to say the guinea fowl aren't protective of their young, they're just not efficiently effective. The males stand up on their toes, squawk loudly and flap their wings, the females just run away. The rest of flock may issue warning screeches. The babies, at least, generally have the good sense to hide, assuming they've run fast enough to get away.

Aside from the clutch of new babies, there are also still the two from next door and another slightly older pair.

Watching the antics of all these baby birds is too sweet for words. Today the very littlies were trying out their wings - we don't go far and we don't go high, but, gosh, mom, look at me fly. They have voracious appetites and their diet consists of seed and insects - I watched one enjoy a snack on a small spider and another peck off the seed heads of my daisies. There has also been a lot of peeping - which is always a sure sign that someone has managed to get left behind and doesn't know where the rest are - but then the parents are inclined to wander off without ensuring the entire family is together! Kind of reminds me of the day my mother lost me in the supermarket when I was three...