eBirdseed.com Wild Bird Feeding Blog

Hi all,

Well, we've got a real mishmash here folks, so let's just get cracking...

A few posts back I mentioned that we have a new sparrow family in the birdhouse... Well there you go. The wife got a series of photos of them including the one above. Looking at the shot, it strikes me what a good idea that aluminum plate was. We've watched red bellies try to "break in" to no avail. Anyway, I hope the sparrows enjoy their new digs,

Onward.

Did you hear about Willie, the hero parrot that alerted a babysitter that her charge was choking? Normally I stay away from "tug on the heartstrings" stories like this, but this one deserves attention. There is clear evidence of these birds having a significant EQ. Not bad. From everything I've read, these members of the psittacinae family can hold their own with even the corvids (crows, magpies, ravens, etc.) That would give them the equivalent "intellectual horsepower" of approximately a five year old human child. And that would also explain the rescue by Willie.

And in the "Other Stuff Dept.", a few days ago we had a slight cold snap (25 degrees and windy). As I glanced out the window I noticed an assortment of red wings, crows, and doves scattered around the ground under the feeder, And for whatever reason, a poem by Emily Dickinson came to mind... So here is poem number 32 (I believe):

"Hope" is the thing with feathers----
That perches in my soul----
And sings the tune without the words----
And never stops----at all----

And sweetest--in the Gale----is heard----
And sore must be the storm----
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm----

I've heard it in the chillest land----
And on the strangest Sea----
Yet, never, in Extremity,
It asked a crumb----of Me.

See you by the feeders, and goodnight Emily...

CapeCodAlan

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