Geriatric OE

The weekly musing of a couple of Kiwis on their geriatric OE in The UK






Wednesday, 6 June 2012

Meow tweet tweet

Back to work today after a four day weekend, hard transition. Thank goodness my back is so much better today.
A couple of weeks ago my local Starbucks closed its doors for renovation. Very clearly on the shutters that are enclosing the store frontage is a sign that says re opening on June 4h. What do I do this morning but go there to have my usual morning coffee and internet chat with family. What did I find? Well the signs are still up and the store is still closed. So back to my second choice store where not surprisingly no one knows when the store will re open. Goodness only knows what the staff are doing.
There is an interesting programme on TV called ‘Springwatch.’ It really appeals to me as it is about the critters and birds that live in the local garden. They have nest-cams and is lovely to see the baby birds growing day by day.
It reminds me of when my beloved Siamese discovered that a daft thrush had built its nest on an easily access able fence line.  Cat caught and dispatched one, and then another and then obviously fully fed caught the third and was playing with it on our front step when I went to investigate the noise. Unfortunately it was too late for that one, but when I heard the nose again I was quick enough to save it. So what to do with a helpless hardly feathered baby bird. My oldest daughter ably took on the role of surrogate Mum. Bird took up residence in of all things the cat cage (the one we used to take him to the vet in). Daughter did an excellent job and pretty soon bird had recovered from its feline ordeal and grew into a very handsome male. She would let it out regularly to exercise and when it was tired it would snuggle down in her hand or on a convenient lap.
As it grew she decided that it was time to introduce it to live food, so dug up some worms for a tasty meal. Daughter took bird from his cage and set him down on a few sheets of newspaper and popped  a wriggler down in front. Well it was so funny to see bird take fright at the sight of a tiny squirming worm. It did make us all laugh. Squeamish daughter had to cut the wriggler into segments to feed her baby. After a while bird got the idea and would scoff down the wriggly offering as fast as they were presented to it.
Now we were presented with a problem. In rescuing bird we had inadvertently removed its fear of humans and in fact pretty much everything that it should be wary of. What to do? If we released bird it would most certainly soon become a meal for something.
I remembered going to a bird show a few years before and seeing blackbirds and thrushes on display. A phone call to the local cage bird society led us on to one of their members who kept British songbirds. The bird fancier was pleased to give bird a new home in a spacious aviary and we were pleased to see it go to a safe home.


1 comment:

  1. i remember that, but not the wriggler bit, or the fact that we were handling it. I do remember giving it mushed food, but maybe that was another of said cat casualties. Did you ever find out how it got on???

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