got a quaker parrot. click the link to see him: Bert the Moody Quaker Parrot

He really IS cute! A parrot called 'Bert' - really!

I have recently found out that one of my parrots is actually blind. This is surprising because she acts quite normally in her cage. She obviously has lost her sight at some point but she knows her cage so well that blindness is not a big problem! She is an Agapornis Roseicollis and about 20 years old. My husband takes care of the birds mostly and has often said to me that Hedelmä is possibly blind but I never believed it. Now I�ve done some tests like putting my hand silently into her cage and moving my finger carefully across her face, and she really does not react AT ALL. But she eats a lot and takes care of her feathers ok so maybe losing one�s sight is not such a big deal for a bird in captivity.

as long as you don't frighten her and she flutters off. have you had her checked by a vet?

Haven�t yet showed her to a vet because everything seems to be fine. I�m checking her regularly myself to make sure that she�s not losing weight etc......the only change in her life is that she doesn�t come out of the cage anymore. They have their own room where they can fly freely and peel tree branches (their favourite activity) but she has lost her interest in flying, understandably. D �you keep Bert alone without other birds, Wolf? I guess he needs a lot of your company then to stay happy. The Agapornis can learn to talk too but only if they don�t have a mate of their own species around. I�ve never been interested in taming them or teaching them tricks so they still seem to think that I�m a potentially dangerous beast of some kind!

bert is a loner bird. but he does have the dogs around and his cage is near a window with a bird feeder outside. he has quite the view and actually does enjoy it. in fact, he cranes to see me as i fill the feeder. since my dining room (where he is) and my living room are open to each other, bert is with us all the time when we're home. plus, as soon as i come home, i open the door to his cage so he can play inside and out. because of ceiling fans, his wings are clipped and the dogs know not to mess with him. in fact, i've forgotten to close his door when i've left and have come home to find bert sitting in a chair and the dogs minding their own business! if i were to get another bird, it would have it's own cage, otherwise, the two would bond to each other and hate me!

Does that really happen? Birds gang up on their owner?!

yup. they're full of personality. bert is 12 inches long from beak to tail tip and the way he acts, you'd think he was all beak!! at least, he thinks so. and it works because as gentle as he can be with that thing, he can be extremely aggressive coming right at you with it. he's drawn blood on me already. and it hurts like heck too! the kids are afraid of him and the dogs just lay back their ears with a worried look on their faces. they run the other direction!

(knowing she would approve) A Verse for the Birds The Canary The song of canaries Never varies, And when they're moulting They're pretty revolting. Ogden Nash

Is Bert's other name Alfred Hitchcock?! That is pretty amazing!

The Sea-Gull Hark to the whimper of the sea-gull; He weeps because he's not an ea-gull. Suppose you were, you silly sea-gull. Could you explain it to your she-gull? Ogden Nash

i knew you'd post it!! *haha* thanks, marcia *hugs* bert is really a sweet guy. when he goes through his hormones, he's just awful and snobbish. the AM tells him "Bert's a Jerk" playfully. but bert still says "i love you" every morning when i leave for work. he is going through a summer molt right now which probably doesn't help his hormones any. his poor head is full of pin feathers and when i can coerce him to get off the cage, i'll remove the keratin myself (preening for him). he loves this of course and it makes him feel much much better! oh, and he's completely off the seed diet. i've gotten him to take pellets quite happily now (he was a seed junky-makes them fat). have to fill his bowl more often but as long as he's healthy, i don't care! oh, he loves to play with empty toilet paper rolls. he sticks his head inside and runs around the bottom of his cage with this cardboard roll on his head. it's a riot!!

*lol* Poor Bert having a bad feather month! The Canary was posted to let him know that all birds have bad feather days...and weeks...! He sounds hilarious! I had no idea they had such evident personalities!!! Keep 'um happy if they tell you they love you, I say!

and boy do they know when to say it too!!

Yep, if you keep more birds than one they�ll never forget the difference between humans and birds and they won�t be easily tamed.....but I like it that way, I feel that animals need the company of their own species primarily. Btw, I had to separate my birds because of Hedelmäs blindness. Her friend began to show some signs of hostility towards her. You know, animals don�t easily tolerate disability in each other and they also try to take advantage of it. Hedelmä has a box in the cage where she sleeps (they are hole nesters) and her friend who is much younger tried to conquer her house. There was a fight and I decided to separate them for good. They see each other all the time of course and talk to each other but I wo �t let the younger one bully Hedelmä anymore.

..*sigh* I think Bert needs to be added to your Babes list, Wolfie *grin* He sounds too good to be real...how wonderful it must be to have a critter like him around for morale! Elena, nature dictates survival of the fittest in nature...but we do not have to condone and tolerate that in our homes. We put these wild things in an artificial setting. Good for you for protecting your little blind one!

Artificial setting, that�s it.....actually I�ve always felt a bit guilty for keeping birds because it�s no bird life what they lead. For instance, the reason why they ended up fighting is not only because of blindness but because of the fact that they�re both female, unfortunately! I naturally meant to buy a male and a female but since the sexes look exactly the same, they can�t tell the sexes from each other in pet shops (you need an expert to see the difference in their genitals). But the girls have been doing very well together for years which is typical of the Agapornis of course, so I never went back to the shop to complain. Still I believe that a male bird wouldn�t attack his mate if she turned blind.

Oh heavens!!! Two females in close proximity with no place to go to be alone?! I had two sisters with whom I had to share bedrooms at one time or another - I would not wish that on any living thing! My ex, who taught anatomy and physiology, told me the only REAL way to sex a bird is to disect it...and then it is too late! Fortunately, the birds can tell much more easily *grin*

they do dna sexing now. so just a wee blood sample will give them enough info (you know, xx or xy)... actually, birds bred in captivity don't know anything else. they cannot forage for food or protect themselves. yes, there are feral quakers loose in this country but they were wild caught, not domestically bred. bert's afraid to go outside. he cowers on my arm or neck. one time he scared himself so bad he fluttered off into the grass to get away from what scared him (which was outside!). he enjoys rides in the car (in his pet carrier) and i've yet to take him back to the petshop for free nail/wing trims. he was very good for them but is impatient with me. he knows when i bring the towel i'm either gonna force him out of his cage or clip his nails! he enjoys spray bottle baths and my setting a bowl out for him. he probably would take a shower with me but i have no reason to get him up at o-dark-thirty when i'm getting ready for work! bert's crazy about chips, french fries, potato (the meat, no skin), cantalope, grapes, chicken, eggs, steak, green beans, rice, mashed potatoes, oatmeal, and ice cream (though he doesn't get that anymore since he can't process it anyway). the next bird i would love is either a male eclectus or african gray. the AM almost got me one at a bird show but i said no, as there's no place to put one. the babies were going for $800 and then i'd still need a cage!

My ex did his stuff a l o n g time ago...of course, DNA testing would be simple and non-invasive and incontrovertable. Bert likes the good stuff, no bark, rind or shell, apparently. Interesting that he eats chicken...and I am sure your family appreciates your not getting him up at o-dark-thirty to shower with you! Fascinating stuff! We have mynah birds - that is as much sass as I plan to take from anything on two feet with feathers!

What d�you mean Marcia, do you keep mynahs at home or do you mean the ones in your yard? I think mynahs are wonderful, very intelligent and they move beautifully. Last winter I was in Malaysia and there were mynahs everywhere, even in the hotel restaurant, sitting and singing on the chandeliers hanging high up from the ceiling. And they were obviously clever enough not to shit on people or try to steal any food from tables (only picking crumbs under them.) Wolf, Bert must have a very sound digestion to be able to eat all that stuff! My birds get only water, vegetables and various sorts of seeds, hemp especiallly. And I suppose they get a lot of tree fibres too because of continuously peeling and dissecting branches to bits.

elena, bert's a very hardy bird. all the info i've read encourages table foods to ensure a complete diet. i keep frozen vegees on hand as well. but don't overindulge in the fried foods because these guys will get fat like the rest of us! last night, i coerced him off his cage (with a hand towel) and was able to take a good look at his feathers. he's got so many new feathers that i can't imagine he's comfortable. i wrapped him up in the towel so his head was sticking out and commenced to preening the loose keratin from his new feathers. he loved it!

Elena, we have stupid wild mynah birds all over the place...outdoors. They are not the species which can talk, but they are a noisy and gregarious bunch. Ever the opportunists, they will steal anything not tied down including jewelry and other shiny things which they love. Christmas tinsel is a big hit with them! I can just see you, Wolfie, cradling bert in his towel in your rocking chair and preening him. No wonder he liked it...sounds wonderful!

Marcia, sounds like your mynahs are far from stupid! I have this thing for the crow type of birds, I love crows because of their great wit and playfulness. I almost think that they have some birdie sort of humour. A crow used to belong to our family in the eighties when my mother found a wounded baby, obviously fallen down from a nest. We called her Laura and took care of her for a long time before I found a zoo for wild animals that took her in in spite of the fact that she practically couldn�t fly. I still remember her big black warm feet on my shoulder and that huge appetite. I stuffed food into her open red and screaming mouth practically all the time. We had our tender moments when I gently blowed warm air into her feathers. She obviously thought that I was her mother until she became adolescent.

How lovely it is to have birds imprint on you. One Mother's Day we visited a friend who kept a few large yard Geese to eat the weeds and keep out the unwanted visitor. I went down to see the babies, and they all ran out when I called to them. They nibbled my fingers as I talked to them. When I went to go into the house with the humans they all followed me peeping loudly. Then they nestled at the bottom of the stairs which was as close to me as they could get. Meanwhile the Alpha Female was giving me very stormy looks. It turned out I was the first person they had seen - first anything, for that matter - they had just hatched!!! They peeped a forlorn farewell when we drove away...I was honored and felt terrible that I had not been warned. However a student renting a room in the house quickly and happily took my place in their little hearts! That was a REAL Mother's Day experience!

Our mynah birds are sassy and far too smart. They will never fly from the road kill on which they are feeding - they stroll away as though they though cars were beneath their contempt. Very funny, indeed, and w a y too clever by half!

yes, that's what the ravens do here. they just look up, walk a few paces, then back to the carcass they go! marcia, i sit on the recliner which is a close to a rocker i can get!

Sounds lovely, wolfie! Now, I'm gonna go see where and how you put up your buttons I am totally clueless about that though I can see how they were sone. Any suggestions?!

This is amazing stuff. I never knew birds could be so full of personality and so full of $hit. I swear I might get one!

Sent to me from Australia (and this David is not my son...) David received a parrot for his birthday. The parrot was fully-grown with a bad attitude and worse vocabulary. Every other word was an expletive. Those that weren't expletives were, to say the least, very rude. David tried hard to change the bird's attitude and was constantly saying polite words, playing soft music, anything he could think of to try and set a good example. Nothing worked. He yelled at the bird and the bird yelled back. He shook the bird and the bird just got more angry and became even more rude. Finally, in a moment of desperation, David put the parrot in the freezer. For a few moments he heard the bird squawk and kick and scream. Then suddenly, there was quiet - not a sound for half a minute. David was frightened that he might have hurt the bird and quickly opened the freezer door. The parrot calmly stepped out onto David's extended arm and said: "I believe I may have offended you with my rude language and actions. I will endeavor at once to correct my behaviour. I really am truly sorry and beg your forgiveness." David was astonished at the bird's change in attitude and was about to ask what had made such a dramatic change when the parrot continued: "May I ask what the chicken did?"

ROTFLMAO!!!!

...me too...think Wolfie will be upset that we added a little humor to her conference (in which we are also co-hosts)?!

not in the least! i've read that one before and loved it!

Happy me...! Thought it might have missed a few so put it here since we had been talking about parrots and their kin.

Here's a sad story reported by the BBC. Residents of a town in the Czech republic were taken aback when it started raining geese on Saturday. A flight of geese was struck by a freak lightning storm and the electrical discharge paralysed their wing muscles. the birds were unable to remain airborne and dozens of them crashed to the ground in the town of Havirov. A vet who examined the birds said they died of their injuries after hitting the ground, not from the lightning storm.

Sad, but for the hungry village, an Act of God?! They have had precious little fit to eat since the fighting began! I think more than likely this belongs in ParaSpring!

Well, actually i wondered about geo ......

can you say manna from heaven? amazing!

Ah but just imagine if one hit you, talk about splat! worse that what they usually send down.

They mostly migrate at night...probably did not hit anyone or the Beeb would have said as much. Yeah...I know all about the usual kind of flying splat! Btw, did you know "manna" translates "what's that?!" or "whatchamacallit" in modern terms. The Hebrew "children" had no idea what all that stuff was on the ground - so they called it the equivalent of Hawaiian "da kine"

and i thought it meant bread!! that's interesting!!

I think we all did since in Sunday School they tried to tell us curious little kids what it was like. I can only remember being told it was bread and wondered how they stayed alive for 40 years on bread. But, as a good little girl, whose mind was far too active but was well behaved, I never asked. Now you know! Dontcha wish we had some to analyze and know what all was in there?!

hmmmmm.....

*grin*

we put up a martin box the past weekend and already, househunters and checking the place out. just a little while ago, a starling was going through all the "rooms", a sparrow is trying to rent out a first floor flat, and the martins were acting like the landlords! there were two starlings and two martins sitting on top chattering away!! the other two birdhouses (one by the front door and one by my bedroom) have occupants who wait patiently when we go out to garden. it's a predatory response but those little cuties know we know they're living there!

the male sparrow making house beside my bedroom just had two female visitors! wonder which one was the mother-in-law? *grin*

there have already been reports of first sightings of hummers so get your feeders out. please don't buy the nectar in the store, first, it's too expensive, second, hummers can die from the red dye (or food coloring) used in the nectar. i've been feeding hummers for a couple of years and only last year did i learn about the red dye. don't want to think about how many hummers i killed accidently. so make it at home....here's a recipe i use: 1 gallon of nectar = 8 cups water, 2 cups sugar (remember, 4 parts water to 1 part sugar) bring the water to a boil and then add sugar. let it boil for 2 or 3 minutes but no longer (this is to purify the nectar). don't use honey instead of sugar and don't overdo the sugar, weaker is better. let it cool and place in your feeder. i keep a gallon jug in the fridge clearly marked hummer food so the kids don't mistake it for koolade or something. remember to clean out your feeders every 2 or 3 days (due to bacteria buildup)... the above recipe came from the following site: http://www.orchidlady.com/personal/humming.html remember, those hummers will come in droves then slack off, they haven't left, but are nesting and will be back. you can keep your feeders up through october in the southern states. another great site i found for hummers is: http://www.hummingbirds.net enjoy!

from the migration maps on hummingbirds.net, i have just learned that hummers were spotted around monroe, louisiana which means, i need to get my feeders up today! (since the report date was march 5!!) hawaii isn't on their maps (but alaska is, curious). marcia, do you have hummers all year?

[Good Morning, Wolf!]

hi alex!!

Wolfie, Hummers would be a disaster in Hawaii. They like to sip nectar from the tiny purple trumpet flowers which bloom on pineapples. In the act of doing so, they pollenate the flowers which then produce large hard seeds. Can you imagine a pineapple riddled with large hard black seeds?! No, there are none here! I sent your recipe to my son who has hummers all of the time and Critter warbles at them as he watches them play in the air outside the Window. If you don't believe it, I have a sound file of him doing it!

Loved reading about the Bird house-hunting and the mother-in-law along for the choosing just the right place for the grandkids!

*lol*

A Bird in the Hand Is Hard to Find WINNIPEG (Reuters) - Canadian pet bird owners are in a flap over news that the country has been hit by a coast-to-coast budgie shortage, the president of the Western Canadian Budgerigar Association said Tuesday. ``Pet stores are really scrambling to get budgies,'' Jim Bertrand told Reuters by telephone from Abbotsford, British Columbia, where he breeds exhibition birds. ``There's obviously a shortage,'' he said, adding that prices may rise for consumers wanting to buy the brightly-plumed, chattering birds. Pet store owners in the Prairie city of Winnipeg, the geographical center of Canada, attributed the scarcity to the recent demise of two large bird breeders in Montreal forcing shops to demand supplies from smaller breeding companies. But breeders have been squawking because budgies cannot reproduce fast enough to fill the demand. ``There are any number of smaller breeders and pet stores are bugging them for birds,'' Bertrand said. ``If large-enough central breeders go under, it produces a shortage.'' Bertrand said there is a constant demand for budgies, native to Australia. ``They're the number one selling pet in the world,'' he said.

why don't they give in a get a bigger bird? (hey, maybe the prices for them will go down since their demand is lower?) we've got lots of budgies over here (parakeets)....my dog ate the one i had (had it for 2 weeks and it finally got used to me, something startled it so it flew off and my little dog, never being around birds, didn't want it to kill his mama so he mouthed the little guy, gave that bird a heart attack and it died in my hand *sniff*)

How sad! Poor Wolfie....*sniff* *hugs*

Did I tell you about our red kites which are a rare British species? When we first moved to the area 15 years ago they had just set up a captive breeding programme for them and released a pair in woods about 10 miles from us. over the years since the colony or whatever you call it has really got started. now the birds have spread acros the woods from their starting place to the woods right by me. Sometimes I have seen six birds riding thermals. Some local farmers have not been too pleased, but we've only had one bird poisoned since the programme started. Like most birds of prey they have a reputation for taking young lambs etc.

kites are that big? i didn't think they were. (i adore birds of prey, see a similar discussion in falconry, this conference) well, i got over it (Sam is in heaven now with Lucky the stray and Sylvester the cat) and then i got bert. who, btw, has had a spray bath and is sitting on my shoulder while i'm typing on the computer. he must be really happy to sit here with me quietly. he's purring into my ear.....(and doing unmentionable things to my t-shirt!)

(oh, and milton the hamster, who went to heaven late last year, oh, then there was charlotte the guinea pig)....

Kites are huge (well comparatively). They have lovely forked tails which make them very distinctive. Well, our red kites do. I think they rate as my faourite bird, next to blue tits, nuthatches, wrens, um I'm sure I should be able to think of some more.

my fave raptor is the red-tailed hawk. have always loved them and always look for them.....i love cardinals, starlings, robins, blue jays, etc......

the starlings area really fun just now, fighting over who can hang upside down on the fat ball holder. The sparrows are sensible and wait for them to finish squabbling and then dash in and pick up the remains. I have new tanants in the bird house on the shed. two blue tits are dashing in and out. but i'm not sure she's laid yet.

that should be tenants

Peregrine Falcons are my favs. When I was visiting in California one hunted for dinner during our afternoon walks, and when he swooped down on his prey you could hear the wind through his feathers. Remarkable! Big and beutiful - they are our fastest birds of prey and pretty large. Yuck! Starlings. We do not have them nor seagulls nor any carrion-eaters here.

the AM doesn't care for starlings very much. those peregrine falcons are cool, but i've only seen pics. they can swoop down on other flying prey too. redtails rarely do that.

oh, when i was at school in virginia beach, i would go out on the terrace with a snack, those birds would swoop down and sit on the railing. so i started leaving a bit or two of cereal for them in the morning. this was probably not a good idea but it was too cool.

(sea gulls, that is, not falcons or redtails)

Sea gulls have become a real problem in some british seaside towns. They are attacking residents and visitors.

*sigh* because of folks like me who feed them *grin*

If a sea gull should ever attack me, I'll take it home, stuff a turkey up its ar$e and bake the nonsense out of it.

*lol*

You have much bigger sea gulls than we see...could never stuff a turkey into one in either direction - but I like the thought. I have had particularly rude ones walk brazenly onto my beach blanket and steal my cookies...one by one! Land's End is particularly hazardous for tourists with food. They will dive-bomb you until you drop it and run. Then, they feast!

In my list of favourite birds I forgot kingfishers - how could I? Ours are blue, and orange and flash by you if you are lucky to see one. I have a growing kitsch collection of kingfisher thingumies. Latest addition was a cushion cover from daughter 2. Sweet thought. We had a whole range of them (kingfishers i mean, not cushion covers!) in the Gambia. The largest was balck and white and sort of speckldy. The smallest was a pigmy kingfisher which was a minute version of the british one. It used to bathe in the duck pond on my comound, until my cat caught it ( a VERY sad day!)

i'll bet! i usually see a kingfisher on one of the electric lines above a ravine. think he's waiting for crawfish. oh, i love cranes and herons and birds in those families. so graceful and they are not like nervous little birds at all.

I haven't seen one here for ages. They're really quite rare in England. I don't know if there's a Malian one or if they're the same a Gambia. I'll let you know when I'm there.

Yesterday, March 15 the buzzards returned to Hinkley, Ohio, as they do every year.

They did...but it lacks the esthetics of the swallows and Capistrano, does it not?!

Could Concorde Be Throwing Pigeons Off Course? LONDON (Reuters) - Thousands of homing pigeons could be flying around hopelessly lost and unable to find their way home because of the supersonic passenger jet Concorde. A California-based scientist thinks shock waves from the aircraft may throw the birds off course and prevent them from hearing low-frequency sound that helps them navigate, New Scientist magazine said Wednesday. ''Researchers have shown that pigeons have a built-in compass that allows them to navigate using the Earth's magnetic field and the position of the sun,'' according to the weekly magazine. ``But to reach their destination the birds also need to have a map sense a mental chart linking their starting position and destination so they know which way to go.'' Jon Hagstrum, of the U.S. Geological Survey in Menlo Park, California, believes low frequency sounds, or infrasound, that birds can hear but humans can't could be the key to their map sense. He suspects the Concorde caused a third of 60,000 birds taking part in four races between France and England in 1997 to loose their way because it interrupted the low-frequency sounds. ``To find out, he compared the birds' predicted routes home with Concorde's flight paths and departure times on the days the races took place,'' the magazine said. ``The calculations showed that in all the races, the hapless pigeons would have entered the cone-shaped shock wave. This could have temporarily or permanently deafened the birds to the infrasound,'' it added.

So that's where all the extra pigeions in High Wycombe came from! Mystery unveiled. Who do the town council send the cleaning bill to?

Indeed! Good question..*lol*

The swallows return to San Juan Capistrano on March 19, which is very asthestic.

I have a blue tit/s (can't tell if it's the same one) behaving madly around the nesting box on the shed. He/she pops in, pops out, hangs on the side, goes on the roof, jumps up on the shed roof, pops down to the box again, sticks his/her head in, pops it out again, flits about two yards from the box and back again, and then starts the popping onto the box, up to the shed roof act again. I stood for about fifteen minutes this morning watching, thoroughly engrossed. I couldn't see he'she was catching flies or other usual things. Anyway it was fun. Saw two crested grebes down by Marlow weir this afternoon.

the sparrows act that way here. all this nervous chitchat behavior. we have purple martins for which we all put up special condos. they have to compete with the starlings and sparrows for the boxes. but, they come back every year to the same box to nest. as i said earlier, this is our first year with a martin box. we think one family has moved in, but i saw a sparrow trying to remove nesting material this morning while a bunch of starlings hogged the seed from my feeders. no hummingbirds yet at least that i've seen. they also remember where the feeders are and will come back to those spots. we had to cut down one of the trees they hung out in because it was pushing up the roof tiles, but, they're are babies growing where the big one was and i'm gonna transplant soon! (they love crepe myrtles and our elm tree)

The lace-necked doves and barred doves are nesting in the huge Poinciana tree in the front yard and the cardinals and white-eyes are nesting in the palm thatch.

I have two collared doves which keep trying to get onto my bird table. They are a lovely soft salmony dusky pink and very pretty. But they are really too big to get under the roof of the table and look so funny falling off! I put seed on the ground too, but they seem convinced that the food on the table is better even though it's the same.

they're just well-mannered birds! *grin* we have mourning doves all over the place. love that squeaky swing sound they make. they're so funny because they'll sit wherever they are and you think you're gonna get real close. then, at the last second, swoosh, they're off. they sit on their babies til they're half-grown! my neighbor has a huge live oak which shades our front yard in summer and the doves (as well as a menagerie of other birds) nest there every year.

Had a greenfinch visiting yesterday for the first time. Nuthatches are not coming so often now.

Saw a very rare glimpse of a kingfisher down by the Thames at Marlow. First time I have seen one for a number of years.

i did a search for woodpeckers and came across a site about all sorts of north american birds. according to that site, the kingfisher doesn't do anything in louisiana. will do another search and this time get the address to post.

Thanks! Will check it out.

oh, hummingbird sitings have been report in my area (ruby-throated). haven't seen any at my feeders, which reminds me, i've got to refresh the feeders.... two or three martin families have reached a mutual agreement with the house sparrows. 2 martin families on one side and a martin and sparrow family on the other.

I have never heard of Sparrows in a Martin house...and this is not even the 90's anymore! Just as long as peace reigns...His Emminence (the resident Cardinal) awakened me at 5am by singing as loudly as possible just outside my window. Oh well, it is a cheery sound even if it is an early hour. He must have gotten all of the worms and awakened all the rest of the birds, too.

swallows will take whatever they can. they'll even remove the martin's nesting material and rebuild.

Oh...Swallows! Yes! They are in the same family as Martins, so that is a natural association. I was thinking sparrows. It has been a while since I was on the Mainland to see the birds =)

...but I never lived where there were so many swallows that I learned they are thieves. Cuckoos, Yes! and worse!!!

no, i meant sparrows. the house sparrows will sneak over to the martin house and try to move in while the martins are out foraging. (i know i said swallows, but what's one letter? *GRIN*)

(whew! I do that, too)...Ah! Yes, Sparrows are almost as bad as Starlings - just smaller!

I have a huge gang of starlings who regualrly raid my birdtable and everything else in sight. They roost under the eaves of the houses and make a dreadful racket. But they are so perky and cheeky that i don't really resent them, only when they drive my very valued nuthatch away. (yes, i am online during the day - but only because T was sending work emails and i hitched a ride!)

i like starlings. it's the crows and blackbirds who roost in the trees and yards and steal all the seed i put out for the songbirds....