My 3 chickens roam happily around the back garden eating grass, grubs and, when my fencing is inadequate, my veggies. They are safe from predators (pretty much) and have nothing in the world to worry about.
But it is in a chicken’s nature to worry. In the “wild” there are plenty of predators: packs of dogs, eagles, cars, lions and tigers and bears – oh my! My girls are always alert and often alarmed.
My hens were grazing peacefully on grass when a few cockatoos roosted in a nearby tree and started squawking. If you haven’t heard a cockatoo squawk, you’ve missed out on a very loud and obnoxious sound. It doesn’t sound to me like a lion, car or eagle, but it just might to my chooks. All 3 froze mid-stride like the music had stopped or something. Isabel kept this pose long enough for me to take as many pictures as I wanted. I found it really funny at first and then I thought maybe to my poor chooks it was as far from funny as things get.
Go ahead call me insensitive, I still think it looks pretty funny.
Laura Rittenhouse's Gardening Journal 
Gosh your chooks are so spoilt 🙂 I also think they might be showing off for the camera a bit don’t you?
They used to come and investigate (and try to eat) the camera whenever I brought it down, now it’s like, “ah, the paparazzo is back” and they go about being terribly cute like normal.
“In the “wild” there are plenty of predators: packs of dogs, eagles, cars, lions and tigers and bears – oh my!”
Don’t forget the municipal zoning enforcement lurkers. They are the backyard chicken’s worst enemy here. 😦
Yeah, I hear their are some real anti-chicken local governments out there. What’s up with that? Some sort of childhood trauma perhaps?
I have my theories but this is a family rated blog so I’ll just keep them to myself. 🙂
Yes, this is a nice blog, not one where reality should play too big of a role 😮
Poor things – but they don’t know they are giving you a good chuckle, at least.
Wouldn’t that be awful. I’d feel really horrible then. But they are blissfully ignorant and see me as their rescuer. I chase bad things away and they sometimes scamper to me when they’re frightened.
So funny!
See, it’s not just me. It is funny. Thank goodness I’m not the only evil human who sees something funny in the terror of a poor little chicken. I may be mean, but at least I’m not alone 🙂
OMG, that totally made me giggle as soon as I saw it. Isabel, you made my day! I’m sure if you were able to see yourself, you would laugh too. 😉 It’s like when my kids used to cover their eyes, because they thought I couldn’t see them that way. Although, seriously, I suppose there are many predators that are quite attracted to movement… my cats being a good example.
Birds are descended from dinosaurs which makes me think they’ve had time to evolve one or 2 successful survival strategies. I’m sure she would laugh at herself if she could see herself but keep on being funny as long as it kept her alive. She’s wise beyond her years!
I love her pose. It is usually birds in the trees here that cause the same alarm 🙂
Anything can cause them to be frightened – wind in the trees is a big scare, a piece of paper in the flowers, but birds seem to be something they are sure is a threat, not just a potential threat.
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How silly…When I first got my Galah, it was months before my neighbor realized what I was keeping as a pet. He’s typically pretty quiet, but every now and then he’ll start up…and it must be quite loud for the neighbor to have heard it inside her own property! Lol. Can’t blame the lil’ girls for being cautious!
Yep, when those parrots get going, any sane beast quakes in fear 🙂 Your neighbour must have wondered what in the world had landed in their territory!