Rescued bunnies

Googs had a sleepover at his grandparent's house. Hubby took the other three out to the river.They had a hot cooked lunch to warm them up

On the way home, on the side of road near a squished rabbit, were baby bunnies. The kids and hubby climbed out of the car and just scooped them up.
We called the vet who told us to feed them kitty milk every three hours. He warned us that the bunnies wouldn't live a week.
We rescued three

They slept a lot! We stayed in for the first week to make sure that we were around to feed them.Dinosaurs and...bunny :)
We all had lots of cuddles
And they even met the chicks
You can see how tiny they were when standing next to the chicks







We've had the bunnies for about a month now and they are weaned and happily living with the chicks outside

Dissecting owl pellets!

We managed to get some owl pellets to dissect :) It's something that we've wanted to do for ages.
The kids helped gran set up the microscope.We not only had owl pellets but buzzard pellets too!
The kids and gran all got stuck in dissecting their pellets. They started with the owl pellets and used wooden skewers
but soon discarded the skewers :)
There was great excitement as they discovered tiny bones.
It was a bit smelly :) Not the owl pellets so much, but rather the buzzard pellets which are squishier
B and K found that they could put some of the bones together

Tiny skull!
Once they got the bones out, the children looked at them under the microscope, and adjusted the magnification to see the bones from different perspectives.
Below is a picture of the magnified bone. The children think that there must have still be some fluff from the chicks on it.

I think that this was part of a skull.
Lots of bones!!!
The buzzard pellets don't yield as many bones. Owl pellets are a lot more fun :)
The older guys worked on this for hours! Kiki got bored and played with a shield bug

While we were looking at chick bones, we decided to open the egg that didn't hatch. As you can see, B was worried about the smell :)

The chick filled the egg which meant that it died just before it was due to hatch :(
And here's the little guy who didn't quite make it. It's stomach was very swollen.

The kids asked to bury it rather than throw it away.

It was a very educational day!

Wetlands Animal Park

On a sunny but cool day, we took the children to the family run Wetlands Animal park. We had never been there before and so didn't know what to expect. For my young ornithologists, it was a good sign that there were chickens roaming the car park :)

All the children took their cameras, so the day was well and truly documented!

After a good chat and wave (yes, this macaw waves!) we moved on.

taking lots and lots of pictures along the way

The kids all enjoyed watching the vultures fly from one end of the cage to the other
not the prettiest of birds
There was more than just birds

The girls enjoying a horsie cuddle
Then we got to the birds of prey


We stayed here for ages. The bird's handler came out and answered all of the children's many, many questions
And the kids got to hold an owl! What a treat :)


Gran had a turn
And so did I :) Googs didn't want to hold though
We got a bit cold so carried on walking around to warm up.
Most of the animals were sunbathing :) I loved how this wallaby was sitting on it's tail



Another magical moment of the day was when the children got to feed the timid deer




And there were peacocks everywhere!! This guy jumped onto the fence as we walked past. It was magnificent seeing his tail feathers draped down like this.

Feeding time for the vultures!
and back to hug the ponies :)

after lunch we bought some animal food and then went to feed the animals. Kiki fed all of her animal food to the ponies.

The goats battled over the food, butting each other out of the way.

Kiki spotted the dog graveyard through the trees and insisted that we go and see it. It really touched the children to see it.
After hours being with the birds and animals, it was time to head back to the car. Just as we walked past, the albino peacock put on a show for us.
This guy followed suit but as soon as the albino peacock saw him, he flew across and attacked him.
Then the chickens came over, B knelt down and a black chicken jumped onto his lap and didn't want to get off!
My own little monkey :)
It was a wonderful day!