lojoco49

Oh that is GOLDEN! Haha, I've never gotten around to reading Discworld - now I think I definitely must.
 
Yes, we are lucky that there aren't TOO many predators here and have managed to save a few of our natives (particularly the flightless ones like Kiwi and Kakapo) from extinction with careful breeding programmes. Hopefully "Last Chance to See" won't be the case, they are adorable 
 
Now that some budgie tales have been written, it reminds me of an event when my son was 3 or 4yrs old. It was our turn to look after the kindergarten budgie over the weekend (Bruce). He was very tame and we had him out of the cage. Jason was on the lounge floor colouring in and Bruce was hopping about on the colouring book. It was a warm day so we had the door open. Next minute a stray cat SHOT in the door, grabbed Bruce and darted outside again. It was all so quick!! After a few tears and the shock wearing off, we desperately started the search to buy a look-a-like. Found one that was quite similar and bowled up to kindy on the Monday with him, guiltily whispered to the head teacher that he was a replacement (and the associated events) only to be told - "That's okay, he's about the fifth 'Bruce' we've had." ?
Found a photo! This was taken just minutes before poor Bruce's demise...
 

Well hello there Bruce V, your successor will be along shortly . . .
I suspect a significant percentage of a pet shop's profits come from the surreptitious replacement of small children's small pets.
 
We had gerbils in Class 1 in my primary school. The thing is, we weren't taught anything about them. I honestly thought they ate tissues because we'd tear strips off them and give them to the gerbils through the bars of the cage and they'd shove them into their mouths and take them away. What's the point of a class pet if nothing's learnt from it?
 
I have a confession to make . . .
I killed a birdie ? Not a real, live one. I tamed a parrot on Minecraft and I LOVED it!

Parrots are a new thing since I was able to play last so I was excited to see some when I explored a jungle biome. You tame them by feeding them seed and then they sit on your shoulder. =3 They stay with you then, either on your shoulder or fluttering along behind you and it's adorable! They talk "hello," and call a little but it's not constant or in the least bit annoying so I really enjoyed its company. But it was fluttering about and got in the way when I was chopping down a tree and . . . ? I felt like a complete monster and I haven't allowed myself to find another one yet.

Oh that is GOLDEN! Haha, I've never gotten around to reading Discworld - now I think I definitely must.
 
Yes, we are lucky that there aren't TOO many predators here and have managed to save a few of our natives (particularly the flightless ones like Kiwi and Kakapo) from extinction with careful breeding programmes. Hopefully "Last Chance to See" won't be the case, they are adorable 
 
Now that some budgie tales have been written, it reminds me of an event when my son was 3 or 4yrs old. It was our turn to look after the kindergarten budgie over the weekend (Bruce). He was very tame and we had him out of the cage. Jason was on the lounge floor colouring in and Bruce was hopping about on the colouring book. It was a warm day so we had the door open. Next minute a stray cat SHOT in the door, grabbed Bruce and darted outside again. It was all so quick!! After a few tears and the shock wearing off, we desperately started the search to buy a look-a-like. Found one that was quite similar and bowled up to kindy on the Monday with him, guiltily whispered to the head teacher that he was a replacement (and the associated events) only to be told - "That's okay, he's about the fifth 'Bruce' we've had." ?
Found a photo! This was taken just minutes before poor Bruce's demise...
 

My love of Terry Pratchett has just increased! See the Discworld city he's written most about - Ankh-Morpork - this is its coat of arms.
 

In the book Feet of Clay the creation of the city's coat of arms is featured (WHY is it called a coat?!) Being Discworld the shields are created life-size using live animals because hey, why not? lol. This is the relevant excerpt . . .
And now, thanks to @lojoco49 I know all this is a lovely nod to New Zealand.  
 
Why not? Was that to minimise droppings? I was initially thinking sick birds could contaminate the food for others, then I remembered the protocols we had to adopt when I worked in a poultry factory and avian flu became a problem, not allowed outside in our work gear in case we got pooped on by a passing sparrow and brought the germs into the factory.

Oh that is GOLDEN! Haha, I've never gotten around to reading Discworld - now I think I definitely must.
 
Yes, we are lucky that there aren't TOO many predators here and have managed to save a few of our natives (particularly the flightless ones like Kiwi and Kakapo) from extinction with careful breeding programmes. Hopefully "Last Chance to See" won't be the case, they are adorable 
 
Now that some budgie tales have been written, it reminds me of an event when my son was 3 or 4yrs old. It was our turn to look after the kindergarten budgie over the weekend (Bruce). He was very tame and we had him out of the cage. Jason was on the lounge floor colouring in and Bruce was hopping about on the colouring book. It was a warm day so we had the door open. Next minute a stray cat SHOT in the door, grabbed Bruce and darted outside again. It was all so quick!! After a few tears and the shock wearing off, we desperately started the search to buy a look-a-like. Found one that was quite similar and bowled up to kindy on the Monday with him, guiltily whispered to the head teacher that he was a replacement (and the associated events) only to be told - "That's okay, he's about the fifth 'Bruce' we've had." ?
Found a photo! This was taken just minutes before poor Bruce's demise...
 

Oh that is GOLDEN! Haha, I've never gotten around to reading Discworld - now I think I definitely must.
 
Yes, we are lucky that there aren't TOO many predators here and have managed to save a few of our natives (particularly the flightless ones like Kiwi and Kakapo) from extinction with careful breeding programmes. Hopefully "Last Chance to See" won't be the case, they are adorable 
 
Now that some budgie tales have been written, it reminds me of an event when my son was 3 or 4yrs old. It was our turn to look after the kindergarten budgie over the weekend (Bruce). He was very tame and we had him out of the cage. Jason was on the lounge floor colouring in and Bruce was hopping about on the colouring book. It was a warm day so we had the door open. Next minute a stray cat SHOT in the door, grabbed Bruce and darted outside again. It was all so quick!! After a few tears and the shock wearing off, we desperately started the search to buy a look-a-like. Found one that was quite similar and bowled up to kindy on the Monday with him, guiltily whispered to the head teacher that he was a replacement (and the associated events) only to be told - "That's okay, he's about the fifth 'Bruce' we've had." ?
Found a photo! This was taken just minutes before poor Bruce's demise...
 

Oh my gosh, I just wrote the hugest reply that for some reason didn't take... argh. Let's try again. This will be shorter
@Duma: your pot idea is great! This way I can get someone ready and they'll be strong and healthy ? I am replacing the stairs and rails this year, but the rest of the deck can wait a couple of years, so that gives me time to work on it. 7 kinds of berries? I'm not even sure I can name that many lol... if I were a bird, I'd be heading on over to your place, too. I'll do some research and see if I can make an irresistible cardinal zone. I may try for orioles, too. I've read that they like pieces of oranges. I don't have any photos yet, but I should try to get some!
@jellysundae: I've never seen a UK blackbird. To me, the picture resembles the shape of a robin. Do you get robins? Luckily, I enjoyed his song, so we can still be friends ? I don't know a whole lot about the bird disease... it affected mainly Nova Scotia, and mostly finches. I did not hear of them finding any diseased birds here in NB, so I think it was pretty well controlled/ managed. I think they didn't want people putting out feeders bc they didn't want big groups of birds to congregate and potentially spread it.
@phill: I almost forgot about waterbirds! My old house was on a lake (only about 5km from new house, but the little ecosystem was quite different), and we had very different birds there. The kingfisher was my favourite! We also had herons on occasion, a lovely pair of loons that I could listen to all day, and tons of geese and ducks. Duckling time is the best! They are SOOO cute and not overly shy, so you could feed them by hand no problem (always making sure mom got an equal share too). The geese on the other hand... ugh. One year I counted 27 in the flock. I actually like geese, but their droppings were just EVERYWHERE. And unfortunately, dogs seem to enjoy eating and rolling in goose turds, and my little chihuahuas were no exception. I was constantly washing goose poop off of them. So gross. That green fishy smelling goop I sure don't miss.
@rntracy1: you need to mass produce and patent that house, hahaha. But omg your story of tweet tweet was so charming. What a lucky little guy. So much personality!
@lojoco49: I would LOVE to see birds in your part of the world! If I am not mistaken, New Zealand has very few predators so the birds are plentiful. And I think much more colourful than what I am used to. I also read about a really interesting NZ bird called a kakapo, who is super super rare, but sounds so amazing. I love Douglas Adams books, and the kakapo was one of the creatures he wrote about in Last Chance to See. 
The only birds I really do NOT like to see around my property are the birds of prey. I haven't see any from this new house, but Bald Eagles are so very common and I always hear different stories about 'a friend of a friend' whose pet was snatched. My girls are only 3 and 7 pounds, so this is a big concern. I am hopeful it's more myth than fact, but I do try to be very careful. I can't imagine much worse than that. 

I don't have a photo but it is STILL there in our pear tree.  So I can take a photo. It has been gosh, 16 years now, I can take a picture of it.  It's funny because as the tree grew around it, it squeezed the roof so much that the center seam split apart.  My husband said that's why the birds don't go there anymore, because the rain pours in on them. you need to re-roof their mansion.  LOL.  I felt it was the leftover "furniture" from the many other families there.  I was right, they came back after I cleared it out, but I still caulked the roof seam anyway.  LOL
That is so funny.  I can just imagine that in my mind.  Maybe you should give him some bacon next time and see if he still says it.  LOL
Uggh, I can't believe I just quoted your entire post, LOL.  Leave it to me.  Anyway, I did want to answer a couple of things so, so be it.  I have done that MANY times.  Jellysundae too.  We have these HUGE replies typed up and poof, they're gone.  I think it is something with the computer going into sort of a sleep mode and then when you actually go to send the post, it's been so long, you wake the computer up, but it has nothing in it's memory to send.  Yeah, yeah, that's it.  You get what I'm trying to say though.  Don't you?  LOL
Luckily, IDK, it must be something with windows 10 or explorer edge, since that's the only browser I've done it with, I will type in a long response, then I leave to look at something else and my response is gone.  So I go to re-type it and when I place the cursor, the whole response pops back up!  I like it!
Thank you for re-affirming to me how lucky tweet tweet was.  I felt bad because he only survived a little over a year.  What a birthday gift.  That was the saddest birthday.  I read that in the wild they survive about a year but in captivity they can survive up to 5.  Tweet tweet was very small though.  My husband said, there was obviously something genetically wrong with him, that's why his mommy threw him out of the nest.  He wasn't going to survive AT ALL in the wild.  You gave him a chance at life and he had a GREAT life. (Gosh, I am getting choked up now, over a bird. He was that special though). I really believe he thought I was his mommy.  I was the one who fed him, I was the first one he saw when he opened his eyes. I remember him hiding on me.  LOL. He would sit there so quiet and still in the dining room.  I would be looking for him and he wouldn't move a muscle.  When I would find him he would squeak and get so excited.  The first time he started flying around the house, my husband came home, he was like, "where's the bird!!?"  I said, "he's out somewhere.  He's fine. He comes when you call him, watch.  Tweet tweet!" And tweet tweet flew right to me and landed on my shoulder.  My husband couldn't believe it! 
I do beading and jewelry.  He would come and grab beads and fly away with them.  I would have to go chase him down.  Gosh, I could tell stories forever.  My husband and I both feel that wild birds have a lot more smarts than domesticated ones.  We breed the smarts and personalities out of them.  I have had several parakeets and they just sat there in the cage.  They didn't have the personality tweet tweet had.  I could go on and on.  But I won't.  Just thanks for the affirmation.

What lovely bird stories!   Especially yours @rntracy1
At our house, even though we're quite central to the middle of the city, we're lucky to have a nice big yard which is surrounded by hedges and trees so I get to see lots of birds. 
I'm not sure what all the species are but there are many sparrows and also tuis, fantails, blackbirds, waxeyes, chaffinches and greenfinches and the odd pigeon. We even get the occasional rosella, which is a real treat with its beautiful colouring. 
I often hear a morepork (New Zealand's only native owl) at night but have never spotted one. That's an odd name, you might think, but when they hoot it sounds like they're calling out "more pork"!  

What lovely bird stories!   Especially yours @rntracy1
At our house, even though we're quite central to the middle of the city, we're lucky to have a nice big yard which is surrounded by hedges and trees so I get to see lots of birds. 
I'm not sure what all the species are but there are many sparrows and also tuis, fantails, blackbirds, waxeyes, chaffinches and greenfinches and the odd pigeon. We even get the occasional rosella, which is a real treat with its beautiful colouring. 
I often hear a morepork (New Zealand's only native owl) at night but have never spotted one. That's an odd name, you might think, but when they hoot it sounds like they're calling out "more pork"!  

So these are my bird stories.  When my youngest son was little, he loved to build things with dad.  Hey, I can build things too, pffft, yeah right, lol, so I decided to build a bird house with him.  Well, it turned out to be more of a bird mansion.  LOL.  But, who says bird houses have to be small?  I mean, they can be rich too, right?  IDK, but it was huge and it had a little porch.  My husband said the hole (door) was too big, but I guess he was wrong because the birds made it bigger!!!  I guess they thought a big mansion should have a matching door.  LOL.  Anyway, the birds loved it!!  They tore apart the pillows in the dog house and took the stuffing into the bird house, and I mean, they were loving life in that bird house.  They had families in there.  It is still in our pear tree to this day and the tree has grown around it and it is now part of the tree.  I had to clean it out because there was sooooooo much stuff from different birds, they weren't coming anymore!  Well, lo and behold, after I cleaned all the crap out of it, we got new tenants.  Lol.  Seriously, I should charge rent for that house!  LOL. 
My second bird story.  My husband was at work.  He worked at a Temple and he was watering the bushes.  He thought he saw a spider and sprayed the hose when he realized it was a tiny baby bird.  It had no feathers, NONE, just skin, and it's eyes were closed.  He looked around for a nest but couldn't find one, so he brought it home.  I put him in a little container with paper towels under a desk lamp to keep him warm.  He needed to be fed every 15 mins around the clock!  To feed a baby bird you take dry dog food, put water in it so it becomes mush, put some sugar in it, then scoop it onto a popscicle stick and shove it down their throat.  No Water!!  The water they get in the food is plenty.  As long as their poo is normal consistency, they are eating enough.  I had to feed him like this for about 2-3 wks then it was every 30 mins, then every hour. Just like a baby. I was home for the summer, luckily.  I was sure he wasn't going to make it.  I mean, I have found baby birds before and they died the next day.  Mommy tossed him for a reason most likely.  He could have fallen, but she probably tossed him out.  Well, much to my surprise, he survived!  He learned to fly on his own.  He had such a personality.  He would sit on my keyboard and I would play bird calls on the computer and he would sit and listen to it.  He would drink my coffee out of my cup!  The first time he did that he was surprised because it was hot, but then he went back for more and the rest is history.  He became a coffee lover.  I have a large mole on my jaw line.  He was sitting on my shoulder one day and he started pecking and biting it!  He tried to bite the darned thing off!!  LOL.  It freaking hurt!  He would peck at it constantly!  The funniest thing though, we would keep his cage door open so he could fly around and go in and out, but one night he was standing on the door and calling to me, "tweet, tweet, tweet" then flew over to me, flew back to the cage, "tweet, tweet, tweet."  I was like, wth does he want?  I went over to the cage and he was tweeting.  He went onto his perch and I shut the door, covered his cage and he went to sleep.  The next night, same thing.  He was telling me he wanted to be closed up, it was time for bed!!!  Every night it was the same routine.  That silly bird wanted his cage closed for the night.  He knew it would be opened in the morning.  I would hear him start to stir in the morning and I would open the cage and he would come out, sit on my shoulder, and have his coffee with me.  LOL.  He ended up dying on my birthday the following year.  He had a great life though.  We took him everywhere.  He went camping in Vermont with us, he went to a Posh hotel in Pennsylvania.  I was walking in with a big bird cage covered with a towel.  LMAO.  I really miss that little guy.  His name, Tweet tweet of course.
 

I live in the town centre so there's not many birds around for me to see, sadly. ? Pigeons (there's one nesting in a chimney over the road) and crows mostly, and the occasional blackbird. There's a resident blackbird about this year that likes to sing on the corner of a roof over the road from me and I think of him as my blackbird, I wave to him when I see him up there. =3
The UK blackbird has the most beautiful mellow song and I will never speak to you again if you disagree. You can listen to it HERE
There'll be swifts around any day now, too, they use this street to catch their breakfast, I think, shooting up and down here early in the morning, their high breathy scream is really evocative of summer to me.
Apart from a wagtail extremely rarely (and once, an owl! Skimming past my window in the dead of night and frightening the life out of me. ) That's all the birds that I see.
OH! And like Duma, I just saw a swallow whilst typing.

I just got my feeders up over the weekend. I got a new, very pretty, stained-glass hummingbird feeder and just watched a little ruby-throated female (so no ruby throat lol) have the longest rest and drink. It was so exciting! Last year there was a bird sickness in a nearby province so we weren't supposed to have feeders up. This was my first full year owning the house, too, so I couldn't help but worry they wouldn't come for me... but they did ?
My parents owned the house before me, but it's a nice private property and my parents really weren't in shape to keep it up anymore so I bought it. Mom always fed birds and had a bird book and binoculars by the back glass doors. I do too (boy do those old doors need to be replaced... I feel my money pouring out of them in winter, but I guess that's another story). Here there are lots of mourning doves, juncos, chickadees, blue jays, and various sparrows and finches. There are pockets of cardinals in and around my town, but I have never seen one here. I'd love to attract some, but I think they stick to very small areas. 
I have an old birch tree that grows up through a hole cut in my deck.. that's where my feeders are hung. My husband tells me he thinks the tree should come down because it's old and crappy (like the deck that surrounds it lol), but man that makes me sad. I have other trees around, but it just won't be the same. I love sitting on the deck and having them chirp and flutter nearby while I read.
Does anyone else really love birds? I've never been on a bird-watching trip or anything like that... but I think I could! What do you have in your area?

On the advice of some internet person, I just filled my inventory with Dragonacks. Apparently that makes it faster? It still took me 8 days though:
Something Has Happened! You are now eligible to use 'Drackonack - Hungry' as an avatar on the NeoBoards!

Me too, but Lojo's got dibs right now.
I'm completely ignoring anything Oxbridge has to say now, lol. I mean for the win percentage prediction. It's about time for Thieves again though, isn't it. Though their last win being so long ago could be mainly because they've not been an option that often lately?
Can I be bothered to go back through the threads and check?
*thinks about it*
Nope.

A nice surprise when I looked in my SDB today
Something Has Happened! You are now eligible to use 'SDB Pack Rat' as an avatar on the NeoBoards!

Something Has Happened! You are now eligible to use 'Coconut Jubjub' as an avatar on the NeoBoards!  
Much thanks to ALP again for this one!

Aaaah, thank you! Such a pity they can't sort out some OOAK image for them.

Something Has Happened! You are now eligible to use 'Coconut Jubjub' as an avatar on the NeoBoards!  
Much thanks to ALP again for this one!

Something Has Happened! You are now eligible to use 'Coconut Jubjub' as an avatar on the NeoBoards!  
Much thanks to ALP again for this one!

My last wheel avatar ❤️ so happy. 

OMG! OMG! I can't believe it! I just got this avatar:
Dr. Sloth looks down on you as he passes by. He then turns the corner out of sight. You're still alive, so that's something.       Whoa! You also receive the Sloth! avatar. Maybe it is your lucky day.
I never thought I'd get this one! Woo-Hoo!
Alright, Tooth Faerie, if Dr. Sloth can be "nice", so can you!

I earned the Meuka avatar by beating him using a golden compass, leaf shield, and sun and moon chakrum. Just the Black Pteri left for non-premium battledome avatars!
Also, someone kindly informed me that you can have 5 pets now without a premium account, so I was able to hatch my Draik egg and earn that avatar as well!

Something Has Happened! You are now eligible to use 'Gadgadsgame' as an avatar on the NeoBoards!  
YAY! I'm really awful at Tetris type puzzle games so my husband helped me get this one lol. 

Maybe they used the perks to create this. I suppose they MUST have as there's no other way it could have happened.
*checks on JN*
Yep, it's been confirmed on there now that this is what happens.