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Saturday Morning İBy Russ







It's assuredly a 'bird' day here in Forestville. The peacock has been hanging out by the front gate waiting for a handout...loves dry cat chow ....stale bread, chunked up in the blender. It's amazing (and ironic) what one can do with cat food to feed abandoned and sick birds. We grind it in the little coffee grinder and mix an assortment of products together (gotten from the garden and vet supply stores) to make the perfectly balanced diet for certain species of birds. An Osprey is circling overhead working its way up into a thermal to catch the fast ride to the sea a few miles to the West. A red-tailed-hawk is almost along side the osprey but has it's own agenda; no ocean breezes for this guy. The grey squirrels in our back yard are more than likely what's really going on. Tree swallows are sailing in tight circles just overhead, picking off mosquitos and other pests. Black, white and orange colored Grossbeaks are foraging in the feeder for black oil seeds to feed their softly calling offspring. Black birds are flying in and out of our backyard, hurrying scrounging any and everything edible to keep their young fed. An alien hummingbird has discovered our flowering cactus on the porch. The baby crows in the cages outside have noticed the water dish..water flying everywhere. A spotted dove is preening itself while precariously perched on the picket fence. The gull is still trying to keep its balance when its startled by a descending group of band-tailed pigeons, fighting to get to the feeder. The only indigneous pigeon to this hemisphere...rarely seen...but has picked this place to make its presence known. Acorn wood-peckers are screeching back and forth, notifying all within ear shot that they have young nearby. Baskets of sparrows, crows and assorted other winged wonders dot the table and counter tops inside the cabin. The Cockatiel and Starling are taking full advantage of my incomplete remodeling job of Emmaile's cabin. Where walls have been removed flyways have been created. I'm constantly ducking these dive bombing, speed demons...who stop only to beg another squirt of food from the syringe. Funny what I now do with syringes...same gizmo, but now a tool for me to use for the good. The flight crew has landed...Houston we have a problem. The Cockatiel is on my shoulder biting the hell out of my ear...the Starling is picking at my hair while perched atop my head. Time to feed babies again... hope you don't mind this small sharing of my Saturday Morning.

Russ-____5/30/98







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