Disappointed pheasants

Two days ago, every time I walked to the sink in the kitchen, I caught the whiff of something bad, a horrible stink, reminding me of the days when our dog had rolled in something long dead.  And I couldn't identify where it came from, I emptied the rubbish bag from under the sink, checked if anything had spilled in that area, even suspected that a mouse had got into the kitchen and died behind the washer ......... Then my nose found it, the vile smell emanated from the automatic feeder I had fetched into the house days before when I noticed that the feeding tray had clogged, had washed it thoroughly (I thought) half flooding the kitchen, and upturned it on the island to dry out.  I had not noticed that there was a big lump of mud, grass, grains and I don't know what else lurking in a cranny of the feeder which I'd missed somehow, and it stank to high heaven. It took some time and effort to dig that out!

I blame the pheasants, there were always at least six males and a couple of females hanging around the feeder all day long. They must have been putting the plugs of mud and grass into the tray as they also pecked the ground where the feeder was standing to get what had been spilled, and the ducks were using it less and less.  A few persistent pheasants are still hanging around to pick up the duck breakfast spillages, but the vast majority have been massively disappointed when I removed their main source of food.  I give the ducks an extra helping of breakfast and a serving of grains shortly before their bedtime, they don't move around so much this time of year and don't eat a lot.
I'll leave the cleaned-up stainless feeder in the garage a little longer!

 

 

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Well, John did come home, I fetched him out a week ago on Armistice Day, 11.11.  We have had a difficult time of it since then, John fell out of bed a couple of times and I had huge trouble trying to lift him back in, but yesterday we finally started to receive help.  A specialist bed was delivered last night and today he received nursing care morning and night and that is to be continued.