Gate watchers!

Dog alert!  Faro (left) and Fyta are looking out for a dog which they can hear barking some distance away.  Alpacas it seems have excellent eyesight even over quite long distances.  There is no way of telling if they can make out the image of what they are seeing but they definitely can detect movement over distance and will watch it for some time.  For instance, our boys will watch a cat two fields away or a pheasant walking through long grass over the same distance.  Obviously part of their 'herd protection' abilities hard wired into their system over countless years.

This is a close up of the flowering currant bush in the hedge shown in the previous photo.  The bush looks  and smells lovely at this time of year and is attracting lots of bumble bees - but no honey bees yet.

We've mentioned in this blog previously the fact that the boys can sense when they are going to move to new grass.  Maybe it's simply because they are fed up with their present grass and can see and smell new grass nearby.  Here the boys are spending more and more time over the last few days waiting near the gate into an adjoining paddock where the grass is fresher.  We'll move them during the coming week as this week they are having their Verm-X granules with their feed and new grass will put them off the feed.

Waiting at the gate - just look at the expression on Fergus's face (nearest camera)! A happy bunny or what?  Rufus  and Fidget are also lying down with Wee Eck and Gaucho behind.

This is the view from the new house and you can see the boys in the middle distance sitting at the far end of the bare paddocks waiting to let rip on new grass.

I wonder if any of you alpaca owners have an animal which has a really favourite  place to lie?  The boys lie around all over the place, any time, but Fidget makes a deliberate effort to return to this place just inside the gate and behind the fence for a lie down and to chew the cud!  The others can be quite a distance from him or sometimes they come and lie on the gravel, but we've never seen any other boy lie in this exact spot - they wouldn't dare!

And finally............couldn't resist a selection of Daffs picked from the garden.  Aren't they lovely?  Have a good week.