In a little while I shall activate my plan.
Once our dear little darlings have settled themselves down nicely for their afternoon nap…
And when they are deeply into their 12th hour of sleep,
it is my intention to rush about,
jiggling their beds and baskets and blankets,
making loud noises, wielding a comb
possibly misting them with a spray gun.
Revenge will be sweet.
Patches and Toby. They are the chief scallywags.
The announcers of a new day.
Toby tugs on my hair while Patches cleans my face and investigates my ears…
while Lily paddles at the window:
“OUT! I got to go OUT!“
“Is that a problem?”
Winding my head in like a snail, I hide under my blanket.
But then, most days, Tinks decides to wake Sophia.
In her oh so subtle way…
While I know screams of :
“MURDER! “
are a slight overreaction,
the sound is hard on human ears
not to mention nerves.
So. REVENGE.
Yeah. Right. Pigs may fly.
.
Meanwhile, Grant has a bone to pick with the feathered wake-up committee. He says he intends to locate their roost so he may play bagpipes beneath it at 2 am. He claims not to sleep, but he is never up at that hour and as we have no musical instruments of any kind, it’s an unlikely scenario.
Fortunately.
“It says in the *rule book you have to feed me.”
“Dad said!“
“You’re a terrible mother!”
“Maybe I shouldn’t have said that.”
The starling babies are bigger than the adults and they are such brats:
“All they do is stomp around demanding!“
“Well, what would you do with them?”
“Aw, Mum!”
“We better get our grub fast before they come back!”
I think these are the dads!
(Not really, both sexes feed the young.)
“Ah, a whole beak full, all for me!”
“Wait….what are you doing?”
“Come back!!!”
“Shrinking by the second!”
“How ’bout you in there. You got any food?”
“Come on Sid, hurry up!”
“What are you squawking about. You had yours!”
“Stop chasing me! My kids are out of control! No respect. No manners.”
“Who can shout louder?”
“Not me. I was just standing here!”
“Yes darling. You’re a good little starling.”
*What it actually says in the rule book is that the fledglings are capable of feeding themselves and after a couple of days they should be!
Honestly, Carolyn, starlings are the very clever birds indeed, and they provide the entertainment like no other! The young ones toddle around on widely spread legs, and the way they learn how to eat is hilarious; they know that to get fed they have to keep their beaks open wide, and so they try to get the food with open beaks first, but it doesn’t work, of course, for a day until they work it out the technique. Then, there is washing to be done, and they splash in the large, shallow containers, just like the children do at the seaside. And that is the entertainment!
Thank you, Carolyn, for the happy reminder! You have not mentioned their amazing ability to copy sounds!
Joanna
.
I do have some pictures of them in the bird bath which I will post sometime. Yes, they are great entertainment.
I’ve been trying to tell them about the increase in the costs of seed but they are not interested, “Never mind that, fill the feeders.” they said!
Haha Carolyn 😄, I like your revenge … but I don’t think that will stop them to ‘keep you busy’ during the early hours of the morning! Oh my, that was great entertainment from your feathered friends … and then men say that women talk too much 😉 … they should have a look at your blog!
Why feed yourself when your parents will do it for you? Those baby birds are a lot like human babies. Chancers.
Best wishes, Pete.
Hi Carolyn, this is a bit off-topic. I wanted to ask you something for a while now if I may. How many cat toilets do you have for all your cats? Do you even have any or do they go outside for these needs? I’m wondering how many cats can share 1 toilette.
Thank you for sharing sweet animals again. 🙂
The rule of thumb is to have one more box than you have cats. I have 11 and more than 15 boxes, in different locations. I know how that sounds! I discovered that some cats don’t like to pee in litter so some of my boxes are lined with just a bit of bamboo paper towel which I can rinse. Better for the environment. Do I do diapers for cats! It’s not all as bad as it sounds!!!
This sounds like a lot of work, and I’m sure it’s all worth it at the end. 🙂
This post made me laugh – thank you!
How many cats do you have with so many cat photos, wondering are they all yours?
11, yes all mine. I had a foster home for a while and in the end there were all the unadoptables..for assorted reasons. When I moved back from Seattle I just brought them all, my own, Grant’s and the fosters. It was 13 then!