It all comes down to eggs

I thought this post was going to be an unconnected series of little events and updates. Then I realised most things I did today involved eggs - what comes out of them, what will come out, making them and eating them. If it's April then it must be eggs.

I wanted to post a picture of Barbara and her ducklings, but she's being such a good mother that she gets between me and her babes whenever I try to take a photo. This is my best one:

If you look hard, you can see them sandwiched between Mom and the drinker. I moved them to bigger premises and the family is doing well.

We collected pheasant eggs today. Here's our haul -

The weather's picked up so the eggs are cleaner, but they still need washing -

I can only reach to wash the eggs if I stand on a bucket. Or maybe I need high-heeled safety boots.

Podge has been keeping Mike company in his truck today. While I was cleaning eggs, she helped by clearing up any broken eggs she found laying around.

That's her dinner sorted then.

One of my regular Spring jobs is taking down the peanut feeders and replacing them with seed feeders. Maybe someone reading this knows for sure, but I was told that I shouldn't feed peanuts in Spring when baby birds are hatching. Mothers will feed whole peanuts to their young, which can then choke to death.  I err on the side of caution in case that's not an old wives' tale.

Just at the time when birds are building nests, Dakota sheds her thick undercoat of fur. I brushed her and collected all the fur, then hung it in the tree for them.

I have found more than one nest in the hedge where the inside is lined with Dakota's fur. That will be empty in the next week or two. I can see where birds have been picking at it already.

The egg stage is lots of work, but it's anticipatory. Wait until the chicks start coming!