Birds We Have Known

I once looked after a neighbour's budgie when they went on holiday and got the biggest fright of my life----as you do when it's someone else's pet you've been left in charge of.
So far as I'd known, the bird had never had a millet spray so I decided to treat the poor thing.

The bird loved it and didn't leave it until all the seeds had gone, but then I could see it choking and having trouble dis-lodging some husk so I quickly whipped it out of the cage, forced its beak open and held the bird under the running cold tap. Family in the background laughing and shouting " you're going to kill it mother ".

Bird was drenched, but it perked up back to life again and was happy to continue tweeting. Needless to say I didn't buy any more millet sprays and it seemed none the worse for its scary event. I didn't let on to the neighbour.

We did have a canary for a number of years which had been passed on to us after its owner, an old lady, had died, so the bird was already ancient but sang beautifully all the time.

D has a parrot, Jasper, an African Grey who's hilarious and also very clever. Drives them mad with the phone---as it's him. Miows like the cat and screams like the children. Talks over my D when she's on the phone and laughs inanely.
Honestly, the family's crackers hahahaha.

Maybe being trapped in our homes during lockdown should give us an insight in to the feelings of a caged bird. Let them go, let them soar freely.

Such a lovely thread! I adore birds, always have. As a child we had occasional holidays with an aunt who had a blue budgie called Monty. He had free-range of the house. He used to sit on my uncle’s head while he (the uncle, not the bird!) read the newspaper and would perch on people’s forks at the meal table, stealing tasty morsels he fancied - hygiene wasn’t a consideration for us. He had a lot of words, including Monty wants a cup of tea and Monty wants a kiss.

Later on, an elderly couple offered my mum two green budgies, as they couldn’t care for them properly any more. My brother and I were delighted and we had them for some years. They also had a lot of freedom within the house, which was why the wallpaper was missing from the top six inches of the walls. Strangely, my mum, who was v houseproud, didn’t seem to mind these two vandals wrecking the joint. My brother and I wouldn’t have got away with ripping the wallpaper!

A wonderful book about wild birds who come into our lives is Corvus by Esther Woolf. It all began with an injured rook, called Chicken. www.waterstones.com/book/corvus/esther-woolfson/9781783784486

Thank you Sue , that was exactly the thing that I was thinking of.

When I was small, an injured pigeon was found by my dad. I think he was a racing pigeon, but we didn’t get him re-united with his owner, don’t know why.
He recovered, think it was his leg, we called him Pretty Billy, and he lived happily in our shed at night, and flew around outside in the day. Cannot remember what happened to him, I suppose he went to the Great Aviary In The Sky.

More recently, we used to have a tame pheasant in our garden. We called him Cocky. He disappeared for a short time, when he returned, oh dear, he was limping, all his beautiful tail feathers were missing, he no longer strutted round like a proud cock of the walk. Must have been in a fight. We fed him and kept a close eye on him. Gradually, his leg recovered and his feathers grew back. Sadly, we haven’t seen him for several months now, perhaps he’ll return in the spring. Hope he hasn’t been shot.

https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/202101/medium-934126-img-2489.jpg https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/202101/medium-127072-9c7rroasfq08c6woi6rq.jpg

We have had robins around the garden for years and they visited the table from a very young age. Had a family visit the garden 3 years ago but mother or father (hard to known the difference with robins) fought with the two youngsters as they started to mature. We had names for then all.
One youngster, we nick-named "dippy" would sit on hand and DH's shoulder quite often. Have a lovely photo of it. My daughter's friend drew the family that summer.

We had robins last year but none onto the table.

All my birds are all wild these days. If you've read my Bluey story you'll understand why .

I totally love my birds and spoil them rotten. Are they grateful? Not on your Nelly. If they've gorged on all the seed, fat balls, suet and peanut they sit on the fence and complain until I refill all the feeders. One or two extra brave/bossy birds have been known to sit on the storage box under the kitchen window and look sad.

Then to prove they've eaten well they sometimes leave me little gifts on my clean washing.

But I love them all from my little Jenny Wren all the way up to my magpies, jackdaws and crows. I even love my sparrow hawk even if she does take the odd pigeon or two.

Fanny have you seen this thread about Stephen Sebastian? We were all so invested in a seagull! ❤️
www.gransnet.com/forums/chat/1281141-Well-now-I-ve-got-a-dilemma

Hello again.
Thank you all for your splendid stories. I haven't read them all yet.

Sue - no I haven't seen that before!
Thank you so much, I'll really enjoy that

I love birds as well, and have been enjoying most of these stories.

As a child we had a few rescued birds including some young pigeons and a pheasant. If memory serves, they stayed with us for a season while they recuperated, and then departed. I do remember the feeling of the pigeons resting on my hands, amazed by their soft grey breast and warm feet. They are quite lovely.