birders unite!

[charelan]

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?

[Duma]

I've been a hobby birder for about 13 years now. Rarely I go out on trips though, except the ones in the area that can be done with my bike. I have a spotting scope and binoculars but I mainly watch (and take pictures) of the birds in my yard. Whenever I am on a holiday I will watch and take pictures or note what I see.

I feed them in winter mostly, in summer there is plenty of food for them to be found. I'll throw the occasional bread crumbs outside, but that's about it. I have plenty of berries in my garden and they help me eat them all lol. I have 7 kinds so, yeah, more than plenty.

For small birds, we have sparrows, starlings, robins, blackbirds, wren, doves, tits (that's a weird english word lol I think I prefer Parus major ) We also have Cyanistes caeruleus, thrushes, nightingale, lapwings, woodpeckers, jay (Garrulus glandarius), crows, jackdaw and magpie. I've seen a buzzard and I'm sure there are other birds of prey around but haven't seen them yet. There are a lot more kinds, but this is just what came to mind just now. Oh! see, I almost forgot to mention the swallows (One just flew over as I was typing)

The cardinals look pretty! I hope you'll be able to lure them to your garden! If I were you I would investigate what they like for food and housing and try to get that implemented. That's basically what I try. I offer a variety of food and nesting opportunities to try and get as many species as possible to visit my garden. I just bought this house too and haven't been able to do much yet, but I'm planning to make it a little birdies (and birders) paradise. If you do cut down the birch tree, I would plant a new tree, you can keep that one healthy and pretty and you can still have the birds close by. Maybe do it when you're going to fix the deck? You could buy a little tree already, put it in a big pot and have it grow. That way you don't have a tiny little tree when you finally replace or fix the deck and clear out the old tree. If you have pictures of your garden birds you should post them! I'd love to see them!

[jellysundae]

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.

[phill]

I don't know much about songbirds but there are lots of pretty little colourful ones in the lanes around here, probably lots of tits of various kinds but I've never taken the trouble to find out. Definitely Kingfishers down at the river because they are really obvious, I don't need to be a genius to figure that one out, lol. Sometimes I see heron there too.

I swear there used to be a particular owl who must have perched in the gutter above my bedroom window to deliberately keep me awake at night with it's noise.  I wasn't feeling warm and fuzzy birdwatching thoughts towards that blighter, I can tell you

 

I always like it when the swallows and swifts arrive back. I always feel like summer has arrived. They build in the stables and its nice to see them flitting about catching insects.

 

 

[rntracy1]

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.

 

[phill]

that is the cutest story.

 

do you have a photo of the bird mansion? That sounds epic.

[jellysundae]

2 hours ago, phill said:

that is the cutest story.

 

do you have a photo of the bird mansion? That sounds epic.

It does, doesn't it! Sounds like a potential business venture to be honest!

[lojoco49]

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"!  

[jellysundae]

8 hours ago, lojoco49 said:

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"!  

 

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 . . .

Quote

Vimes turned and found himself looking at a small owl. "My gods," he said. "That's a Morpork, isn't it?"

The old man's face broke into a happy smile. "Ah, I can see thee knows thy heraldry," he cackled. "Daphne's ancestors came all the way from some islands on the other side of the Hub, so they did." Vimes took out his City Watch badge and stared at the coat of arms embossed thereon.

The old man looked over his shoulder. "That's not her, o'course," he said, indicating the owl perched on the Ankh. "That was her great-grandma, Olive."

And now, thanks to @lojoco49 I know all this is a lovely nod to New Zealand.  

 

23 hours ago, charelan said:

Last year there was a bird sickness in a nearby province so we weren't supposed to have feeders up.

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.

[charelan]

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. 

[jellysundae]

51 minutes ago, charelan said:

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

Well that's ok then! ;D

We do indeed get robins! They're the UK's favourite bird. Though the British robin doesn't look like the American/Canadian one. Here's a lovely clear video of ours. Blackbirds are much bigger than our robins, more thrush size.

Ours spends an awful lot of their lives adorning Christmas cards! We associate them so much with Christmas that seeing them any other time can be pretty confusing, I can tell you! My mum has a big garden and she has a nesting pair of them this year. I was watching them a few weeks ago and it was messing with my head seeing them amongst the flowers and sunshine when I'm far more used to seeing them like this.

Actually, considering the amount of robins that apparently hang out on postboxes, I think Royal Mail should employ them during December to help with influx of cards to deliver.

 

Oh! EDIT!

Just looked at the guy who took the robin video's other uploads and on this one, 2:07 in a blackbird appears and you'll see how much bigger it is that the robins and assorted tits who were there before it! This runs for 8 hours and I'm tempted to sit and watch it all, does that mean I'm a dog?

 

 

[phill]

I watched a programme about them years and years ago and I never had the same fondness for them after that, they're really quite nasty to each other.

[jellysundae]

58 minutes ago, phill said:

I watched a programme about them years and years ago and I never had the same fondness for them after that, they're really quite nasty to each other.

They are, aren't they! Territorial little devils, if they were human they'd have "neighbour from hell" TV shows dedicated to 'em.

[rntracy1]

22 hours ago, phill said:

that is the cutest story.

 

do you have a photo of the bird mansion? That sounds epic.

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

12 hours ago, lojoco49 said:

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"!  

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

2 hours ago, charelan said:

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. 

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.

[phill]

4 minutes ago, rntracy1 said:

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 have a story like that.  When I was very small a neighbour let me choose one of his baby budgies, I think it was for a birthday maybe. He was green and I called him Twinkle. I taught him to do tricks and to talk. My mother tells me that one day she noticed Twinkle was missing and came out to the garden where I was playing on my swing, to ask where he was and I told her he was on the roof. She says she was stage whispering for me to bring the bird in before he flew away, it had never occurred to me that he might.  My sister got a budgie not long after i got Twinkle, because she wanted what I had. Hers was called Jimmy and he just looked in a mirror all day. I don't think she ever tried to do anything with him though to be fair to Jimmy.

My father found a stray cat and brought it home. It ate Twinkle.  My father said 'he can't have been that ******** clever or he'd have shouted for help.'   

[jellysundae]

1 hour ago, phill said:

My father found a stray cat and brought it home. It ate Twinkle.  My father said 'he can't have been that ******** clever or he'd have shouted for help.'   

OUCH!

Though looking at that with adult eyes, I'm hoping your dad was mortified and wracked with guilt, so covered it up with brusqueness. Did you ever make friends with the cat?

@rntracy1 I'd like to see the Bird Mansion too! I totally think you should go into business building them, too. What kind of bird was Tweet Tweet, do you know?

And yes the Post-devouring Monster . . . I think it's this forum software that saves your last unsent post, and most helpful that it too! At least it was once I figured out what was going on, so I could stop being completely confused by how there was a post there when I'd not typed anything yet.

I haven't seen my blackbird yet today, though he should be about for his evening sing-song in a few hours. 

[phill]

2 minutes ago, jellysundae said:

OUCH!

Though looking at that with adult eyes, I'm hoping your dad was mortified and wracked with guilt, so covered it up with brusqueness. Did you ever make friends with the cat?

 

I would very much doubt that, if I'm perfectly honest. He wasn't a nice man.

The cat was re-strayed toot sweet, according to my mother. With her boot.

 

I don't have much more than a vague memory of the cat, it was a long long time ago in a galaxy far away and I was very young.

[jellysundae]

26 minutes ago, phill said:

I would very much doubt that, if I'm perfectly honest. He wasn't a nice man.

The cat was re-strayed toot sweet, according to my mother. With her boot.

 

I don't have much more than a vague memory of the cat, it was a long long time ago in a galaxy far away and I was very young.

Ah, well, I also wondered if that had been the case but it's not the kind of thing you can say to someone, is it. >_<

I had a budgie, I found out it had died when I got home from school one day to be told it was dead, and already buried . . no closure there for me! Well, I was TOLD it was buried, but there was no particular evidence of such, I suspect it was in the dustbin.

[Kute]

Speaking of birds... 

So we have this cow skull hanging up on the porch and a bird has made its nest in there. I tried taking a picture of the bird but its very hard to see it. You can just barely see its head and eye looking at me. I went back to see if I could get a better image but it had ducked its head back down. We have tape across the lock of the porch door so people are reminded they cant go out because it will disturb the mama. 

 

@rntracy1 I would also like to see the bird mansion! Sounds awesome. 

 

@jellysundae  Your robin post reminded me of my favorite movie called 'The Secret Garden'. Such lovely little birds! 

[lojoco49]

12 hours ago, jellysundae said:

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

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 . . .

Quote

Vimes turned and found himself looking at a small owl. "My gods," he said. "That's a Morpork, isn't it?"

The old man's face broke into a happy smile. "Ah, I can see thee knows thy heraldry," he cackled. "Daphne's ancestors came all the way from some islands on the other side of the Hub, so they did." Vimes took out his City Watch badge and stared at the coat of arms embossed thereon.

The old man looked over his shoulder. "That's not her, o'course," he said, indicating the owl perched on the Ankh. "That was her great-grandma, Olive."

And now, thanks to @lojoco49 I know all this is a lovely nod to New Zealand.  

Oh that is GOLDEN! Haha, I've never gotten around to reading Discworld - now I think I definitely must.

 

10 hours ago, charelan said:

@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. 

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...

 

[jellysundae]

11 hours ago, lojoco49 said:

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.

[Duma]

Now I want a minecraft parrot too. Haven't played in ages! I'll need to get back into it.

More on topic: I think the little starlings have left their nest. I noticed a lot of young ones in a tree close by and I didn't hear them at all today. Normally I can hear them all day long as mom or dad brings food up to them. Their nest was in the drainpipe right at the room where I sleep. lol

[Mouseykins]

I'm not much of a birder. But our yard is constantly full of birds! In the winter we get Sparrows, Chickadees, Blue Jays and Turtle Doves. We try and keep the feeder full for them so they have something to eat.

In the summer we have Robins and Starlings that come to make their homes in our yard. We have an apple tree that seems to be popular with the Robins. Our hedge is popular with Starlings and Sparrows. We also have Yellow Finches that nest in the one corner too. I'm not sure if they're there this year or not as I haven't seen one. Last year I think it was, I counted 20 Starlings in and around our yard! No wonder people here think our house is haunted with all those black birds around!

Currently, there is a Momma Robin on our front deck. Our deck is covered and she chose the smallest spot possible to build her nest. She did that last year and decided to come back. She flies away when my girls or I go out onto the deck. Our pup can go out and she won't even move. My husband can even stand in the doorway and she won't move. On the opposite side where she built her nest my husband made a ledge for her to use that's larger so there would be more room for her and the young ones. She built on the other side!

Last summer we had a newly kicked out Robin our yard. It was still learning how to fly and couldn't get some height just yet. My girls, much to my displeasure, got close to the Robin and were able to touch it. They got scolded big-time for doing that. I'll be keeping my eyes on them more thoroughly this year so they don't do the same thing again. Our pup even tried making friends with this Robin and I got some cute pictures of them interacting with each other. Pup was more interested in checking to see what this winged creature was. There was no agression in her what's so ever towards the bird or I would have made her come in immediately.

[jellysundae]

2 hours ago, Duma said:

Now I want a minecraft parrot too. Haven't played in ages! I'll need to get back into it.

DO ET!

Because . . .

Massive. Aquatic. Update!!!
 

Is that a shipwreck there? It so happens that it is!

And is that a dolphin?! Why yes indeedy! Caught mid-leap!

And there are schools of fish in the sea, and sea grass and kelp, and coral reefs, and sea pickles that glow in the dark, and underwater ruins, and . . . and . . . TURTLES!

YES THERE ARE!

Don't ask what that chicken's doing, it got in my boat and it won't get out. It's the token bird content of this post!

[aurnia]

On 5/24/2018 at 12:25 AM, rntracy1 said: LMAO.  I really miss that little guy.  His name, Tweet tweet of course.

omg this story is adorable how sweet! its really nice how much he liked you guys and that you took him everywhere haha

 

it's nice to see ppl who're into birds!! theyre my favourite animal and one of my biggest hobbies... i live in seoul, so when i decide to go on walks i always walk on cheonggyecheon (a man-made river) with my gf. they always have herons and stuff on the river and theyre really cute!! i always love to see them, theyre not really afraid of people either  

but aside from wild birds im very into parrots/keeping birds! one of my korean friends owns a business called lip parrot which breeds/sells birds but it's also a cafe where you can have a lemonade and chill out with some parrots hehe. i usually go every week or so, checking out the place. i have a bias, of course, in the cafe. its a major mitchells that i knew since he was a baby! but these days i think he hit birb puberty because he gets way, way too overstimulated TT we usually play together a lot but last time i went he bit me so hard it drew blood on my fingers and he wouldnt let go. ive had years of birb experience but this shocked me so badly, it never happened before! i was extremely shocked i kind of teared up because i didnt know how else to react... but i still love mandu lol haha i think these things just happen!! does anyone else have parrots?? (i wish i could keep one! my apartment doesnt allow pets... : ( )