Through the thistles thick and thin

3 thoughts on “Through the thistles thick and thin”

1. Thank you for the birdie picture. I’m thinking it would be nice to add a sun porch on the back of the house and set up an open aviary with a variety of these small birds.

2. Alternatively, Debbie, set up feeding stations where you can watch the wild birds. An open aviary is still a cage. And wild birds should not be caged. Consider Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.

   Thanks to Tom. This male goldfinch has been a busy lad and looks quite frazzled – he would be feeding young at this point, according to Birds of British Columbia. Probably five of them. I’d be frazzled too.

3. Yes, this would be nice too. We are beginning to attract some wild birds to our neighbourhood. It’s surprizing how long it takes for the birds to come back once the builders have disrupted their habitat.

   I myself have learned a lot from watching my budgies. Somehow they choose a mate and stay together for life, when one dies the mate often follows soon after and the males are amazing providers for the hen and their chicks. Sometimes the male looks more be-draggled than the female. By the time the chicks are 3 weeks old they are often larger than their parents and the parents still have another 3-5 weeks of feedinng to perform for about 6 chicks, with the second clutch coming up behind (eggs laid when the first clutch is 3 weeks old).

   The aviary I’m thinking of would not include wild birds, but I’m sure Jim would agree with you — I beliieve he refers to cage cleaning day as pergatory!