Ostrich Farm

Ostriches

Monday, Joshua took us to see the local ostrich farm, which has a large collection of them, including emus as well. Male ostriches have black plumage and red legs and toes, which is more prominent during mating season. Females are a drab grey. Although they have large wings (unlike emus which have vestigial wings) they are flightless, but their long legs enable them to run up to 45 mph. Ostriches can live up to 40 years and the oldest on record lived to 81.

Feeding time

For one dollar you are allowed to feed the ostriches. Instructions include hanging onto the feeding dish handle tightly with both hands as the enterprising birds will attempt to take the whole bowl from you. Once they realise you have a good grip, they then feed on the pellets which disappear rapidly!

Squirrels dart in and out of the enclosures, feeding on the pellets that the ostriches drop.

Largest eye in nature

The ostrich eye is the largest in nature, giving it good eyesight to detect and evade predators, although it would be a brave predator that took on a fully grown angry ostrich as they stand nearly nine feet tall and have a vicious large central claw on their feet. Predators usually target eggs and young chicks than take on fully grown birds. One kick of an ostrich can disembowel a fully grown big cat.

Male ostrich

Here's a male ostrich strutting his stuff.

Female ostrich

And here's a female ostrich spreading her wings.

Emus

And of course, can't forget the emus.

Only two toes

Ostriches are unique in the bird world in only having two toes on their feet. All other birds have three toes, including emus. Here you can see the main central toe and the smaller second toe. You can also see the red on the legs and feet of the male ostrich.

Rows of flowers

Later, Josh drove us to a chicken farm as he is planning to get some chickens for his farmlet. We spoke to the very knowledgeable owner discussing chicken coops, keeping them safe and how to raise them successfully. Nearby were these flower farms which I thought were worthy of a photo. What I couldn't get a photo of was a deer in the opposite garden contentedly dining on lettuces. It gamboled off before I could focus on it.

After that it was tea at a local burger joint, Eddie's Burgers (which was delicious, by the way) before driving back for a quiet evening playing table tennis and watching TV, before returning to LA on Tuesday. Tuesday night we all went to my favourite restaurant again, the Wood Ranch BBQ and had a great night there.