I am blessed with ownership of 32 acres in the cool mountain highlands of southern Queensland, Australia where I can grow many of the deciduous trees and conifers of the Northern Hemisphere. I have the Severn River as one boundary and a gully with 2 dams on another side. My long term vision is to develop the gully into a Japanese style garden and open it to the public. If you would like to converse with me you can write to my e-mail address helwig@halenet.com.au Here is a link that might be useful: GardenWeb

If the hen was/is ready to actually hatch (or brood) her eggs she would NOT bolt when you approached. In fact she would more than likely quickly demonstrate exactly what the old saying about a "mother hen" means. My chickens usually lay a clutch of of 12-15 eggs before they start "setting". More than likely the owner of the hen has been gathering her eggs and she is secreting them away to gather enough to hatch. It will take her about 18-21 days to hatch the eggs only getting off the nest to eat and drink and the eggs will sometime actually feel almost cold to the touch during that time. Trust the chicken to know what she is doing and don't remove or move her eggs. Bantam chickens are usually good brood hens both before and after the hatching. It is great fun to watch them teaching their little ones the ways of the world. Chickens are really quite smart little beasties and learn quickly. The term "bird brain" is not accurate at all. Enjoy, spiderwoman

Thanks to the above turkey hen, I've learned that the red 'skin tags' are called caruncles, L.caruncula, meaning little piece of flesh. Looks like maybe her feathers are in red curlers. Anyway, the red wing blackbirds arrived yesterday - first I've seen this year despite 'the winter that wasn't'. Jane

One thinks of a heron as a slow, deliberate stalker...if this was a crow chick, I wonder if it was still in the nest or maybe out on a limb or even on the ground. If the move was made on a chick still in the nest high in a tree this would totally rewrite the way I think of herons going about getting their meals. As many pairs of crow eyes as there are back there, this was one bold heron thanks for the link...I'm on dial-up so YT is a pain for us, but I will set it up late one night and let it download this one.