Starting a new year in the garden

Well, where to start?
We've been away for much of the summer, and the birds - and the garden - have mostly thrived, despite ridiculously wet and cool conditions. The rest of the country is battling heatwaves, while our little island state records summer snowfalls...!

The garden looking less like an untamed wilderness...

After coming home to find our garden had become a wildly overgrown jungle, we have finally managed to restore some sense of order, and take stock. Our freezer is filled with raspberries, thanks to our house-minder for picking them! We are inundated with plums, and have done pretty well with apricots and nectarines. On the downside, our apples are thoroughly infested with codling moth, the grapes have the worst case of powdery mildew we've seen yet, and the weeds are thicker than ever...

Mildew...this year's grape harvest not looking good...

And the quails?
Of the chicks who hatched just before we left, three survived. Another hatching (from Snowpea) while we were away brought 4, Spock hatched a second batch of 6 the day before we got home - a week later Melon hatched a further 7. The three oldest were doing fine on their own, as were Snowpea's four. We started feeding Spock's chicks mealworms (we've always done this with new chicks, worrying that they don't always find enough for themselves, and constant food-hunting is exhausting for the mother). They very quickly began associating us with food, and following us around. Things got chaotic once Melon hatched her chicks - who we also fed mealworms - so both lots of babies, and their mothers, would follow us around. The chicks were often confused as to which bird was mother...
Spock decided motherhood was not for her when her chicks were about two weeks old, and abruptly abandoned her flock. Her chicks were not really old enough to be left, and followed all the other birds around, cheeping hopefully. There was a lovely moment when they decided Fedderdix was to be their new mum (Fedderdix is a young male, very sweet-natured, and the only survivor of Spock's previous brood). The 6 chicks snuggled up to him and tried to burrow into his feathers to keep warm. Fedderdix stood around patiently for a while, but he was confused when the chicks burrowed too deep, and he would walk away, while the babies would fall out, and run after him. Eventually, and inevitably, they joined Melon and her flock of 7. Melon was very tolerant, and adopted them, but having 13 chicks attempt to snuggle underneath her was not really practical - and it was her chicks (as they were younger and smaller) who lost the struggle.. When her original family had been reduced to 5 we decided to intervene. We caught Melon and her brood and put them in our baby-raising cage, and put the 6 orphans in another cage in the shed, just at night. They cheeped forlornly, and we put a heated wheat -pack in with them as a substitute mother...they snuggled up to it happily, and we would find them in a tight little pile in the morning. During the day they would all roam the garden together, but if it got cold, Melon's babies would be pushed aside... She ended up with 3 surviving chicks - and all 6 of Spock's abandoned babies - thanks to Melon - are fine!

A huddle of chicks (all of these are from Spock)

It's now more than four weeks since we came home, and all 9 chicks are developing well and hang out as one big family - Melon has moved on.



We've had fun with their names - Melon's babies are Rockmelon, Watermelon and Pademelon!

Introducing Pademelon, daughter (or son) of Melon!

Although we are a little disappointed with Spock's parenting techniques, we are very happy that - finally - we have some different colouring. Five of her 6 chicks are dark brown, with patches of white (tuxedo marking?) We can actually tell them apart, which we can't always do with some of the others...

Finally, a little one who stands out from the flock!