Surprizes

Guinea fowl.   Our visitor has taken rather quickly to being the farm's version of "Neighborhood Watch"   (Photo:  opencage.com)

 

One of the great things about living on a farm is that anything can happen, and we tend to find joys in the surprizes that happen here sometimes.  Yesterday, I took my husband out to lunch, and when we returned, we saw an odd bird walking around, and it wasn't one of ours !   It looked like a vultury chicken. Tall, fairly large, fairly commanding, and it acted like it had taken over.  My eldest son said at once, "That's a guinea".   This one was wet, and a bit bedraggled.  He looked as if he has been living in the wild for quite some time.   He first visited our pond, then our ducks, then the alpacas, then over to the younger chickens, and so on.  Since guineas are very good by reputation, for eating ticks,  he can wander around here as long as he likes.  We expected him to spend the day here, and likely move on after a rest, some chicken feed, and shelter found somewhere on the farm from yesterdays continuous rain.   Daniel is the one who bought our rooster, Ross a few years ago, who is very much still with us.  He would have found this guinea interesting.
    Early this morning, my husband and I were still asleep.  We kept the window open in the bedroom.  All at once, an unfamiliar bird demandingly called to my husband.  It was time to feed our new friend !  I don't know how long our guinea fowl friend will remain, but he is an interesting creature.  My research indicates that these birds have interesting personalities, largely care for themselves, are quite intelligent, and they mate for life.    We know all of our farm neighbors and none of them have guineas.   This little friend will have to stay for awhile.

Ours is taller and older than these.  He would not cooperate enough for a picture so this picture comes to us from guineafarm.com