Tuesday, January 01, 2008

This is For the Birds

Frank at the bar was taunting me the other night by telling me his friend shot "my" rooster pheasant. I let him believe it was the only pheasant in the world and there were no more to be had. This morning I am watching a rooster pheasant roosting in the cedar trees right outside my window. Ha.

There are plenty of pheasants around here. I make sure to throw bird seed on the ground so they will find food. The poor pheasants are still waiting for the cracked corn I asked Captain Crab to pick up for me.

Pheasants in the Yard
Pheasants in the yard


Pheasants in big tree
Pheasant in big tree


Pheasant in little tree
Pheasant in little tree


Rooster
This morning's rooster


Speaking of birds, I had a Christmas miracle. The day after Christmas I went out to feed my birds. It is the most exciting time of the day for my dog Gretchen. She nearly turns herself inside out as I bundle up to go outside. If she could talk she would be shouting, "We're going out! We're going out!" while spinning in circles.

Out we went with Gretchen crashing through the door as soon as I cracked it. As I was filling the feeder I heard a commotion. Gretchen had a blue jay! Here is the first miracle: I told her to stop and she did.

The blue jay lay there with his wings spread out. For a while, he seemed to be gasping for breath with his little beak. I didn't know what to do. Finishing him off seemed like the humane thing to do but I couldn't bring myself to do it. Heartsick, I went back to the house.

A few minutes later I looked out to see the blue jay standing up and looking around. He looked confused. Later when I looked, he was gone. So that was my Christmas miracle. I'll take what I can get.

Blue Jays
Blue Jays


I love my birds. I get excited when someone new comes to visit me. I was a little sad to have missed this visitor who came to my door while I was out one day.

Bird Prints
I had a visitor

2 comments:

Gwen said...

On Christmas morning a blue jay and a cardinal were eating at the bird feeder outside the back porch at Grandma's house. It was very pretty.

She has a group of wild turkeys that come up to find crumbs left after the cows eat, too. Apparently they're getting plenty of crumbs because they're HUGE.

My great-grandma had a covey of bobwhite quail that came to her yard every day to eat bird seed. One time one of her grandkids got the idea that it would be fun to go quail hunting in the yard. It turns out hell hath no fury like a little old lady whose favorite birds have been shot at and might not come back to eat anymore.

pj said...

Go Grandma!