https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LDtvU8kymg"]Ultimate Starling Murmuration - Starlings Swarming Flocking - Etourneau Sansonnet HD - YouTube
Those are stunning. Last week CBS had a story from the viewpoint of the people living below. http://www.cbsnews.com/videos/thousands-of-birds-swarm-english-village/
Mr. Alexander Spots lived to be 14 or 15 years old before he passed away (I lost count, in the wild I believe they only live about 7 years or less) I raised him from a baby that had fallen from the nest, couldn't even tell what kind of bird until he started to feather out. He used to ride with me to work, so I could feed him during the day. He would grab onto his perch. looking out the windshield of my '84 Camaro and scream at me to "go faster!"... He loved that. Much of the time when he was young he would ride around on my finger or my shoulder even at work. We were at a Pow-Wow one day and this bunch of kids ran past, scared him and he flew down to the lake. After I dealt with the kids (I was a vendor and all the kids had to buy something) I went down to the lake and there's Spots having a blast. I told him he could stay if he wanted but some of those birds would rather eat him instead of play. I held out my hand and he perched... we walked back to his cage and he hopped in and wanted a snack. He used to watch the Cockateils climb on the underside of their cage roof... He kept trying to do that but he didn't have the hooked beak. Once he actually got there and then didn't know what to do so he let go and just fell to the bottom of his cage... Plop. I gave him a grape once and he swallowed it whole, he had no neck for about 1/2 hour. He demanded peanut butter on bread for breakfast... Erin learned this from him and now she gets "peanut butters"... He would eat all the different colors of food except the green ones, but he would eat all the red ones first... then the orange, then the yellow. He started going blind at around 12 years but still figured out which ones were which. Bath time was the best.... anybody near the cage got a shower and he would sing and chatter while splashing around in the water, he learned to talk and also somehow could sound like a cage full of finches all by himself. I had to close the blinds at night because there were "monsters" out there... He would look, get all agitated and scream "Monster!" if anything moved. (Okay, birds can't form the sound of "M" but you could still tell that's what he was trying to say) About a year before he passed away he lost the ability to hold onto a perch anymore, arthritis. I had to help him bathe and wash off his feet every day.... But he still sang every morning, looking out the window after I opened the blinds, ready to enjoy the day... Even though the day was blurry and full of pain. R.I.P. Mr. Spots
I really enjoyed reading that .. thank you for sharing. Last year I listened to an audio book called Wesley The Owl. It had me in tears. Maybe you'll like it, too. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vufEqpZZql0"]Wesley The Owl, Stacey O'Brien - YouTube
