Peach and Blessing

I've decided, reluctantly, to find new homes for my birds, and it hasn't been an easy decision. First I posted on a pigeon forum, and got some weird responses there, none of which really worked out.

So I took the craigslist step. The first week, just offering the least desirable set of birds, I got a flurry of emails from a guy who could barely spell and didn't seem to know where Hollywood was, much less Northridge. When I suggested a specific place and time to meet up he panicked, "not so fast!". Like we were going on a date or something.

So I waited a week and posted today. Here's one of the responses:

HELLO ! IS BIRDS STILL AVALIABLE ? I CAN PICK UP TOMMOROW MORNING & OFFER YOUR CHOICE SODAS THESE FOR MY RETIRE DAD HE HAD BIG AVAIRY IN BACK YARD IF STILL AVALIBLE PLEASE CALL 714-***-**** CELL. THANK MUCH.

PEACH & BLESSING

BENNY


the soda part really stopped me. But sounds like a nice guy and I wish him much peach.
another one:

hi
call me at
818
***-****
t-u
Yair

that one was formatted at extreme right of email in tiny letters. Anyway, later today a woman contacted me and I could hear birds in the background. She said birds are her hobby and she would possibly take them all. She's going to contact me tonight or tomorrow. She sounded really nice.

prophecy of darkness

I've been trying to find a good home for our aviary of doves, some of whom are almost fifteen years old. I'm especially fond of that light tan dove in the picture, and it's not an easy task for me. But we'll be in Colorado from May to December and not planning on having someone live in the house this time.

I thought I'd found a perfect person on a pigeon forum I stumbled upon. Imagine, a pigeon forum. I was a little worried that her email address was prophecy_of_darkness@ but kept up the correspondence. (hope she's not going to eat their little heads off.) I learned you have to watch out for hunting dog trollers if you post on Craigslist because they will indeed do bad things to your birds.



So I sent her pictures of the birds. We'd already discussed shipping the birds. She wrote back:

Sally,

OMG.They're beautiful !!!! I want you to know we will be building an 8ftx8ftx4ft indoor aviary for them,in my bird room(pa winters are far too harsh for them,so they will be indoors,in an aviary-with a very natural appearance).We already have the guy,paid to do it and the plans made,plus some of the stuff bought for it.I will send you pictures of the aviary when it is completed.I hope alls well there,with you.

Have a great day.

Then today I get this grim email:

Sally,

We are having some family issues right now.My father is not doing well(his cancer is advancing-he told me last night),my partner just got diagnosed with RA,(had pain/swelling in her wrists-we assumed was tendonitis,and went to the drs yesterday-he diagnosed her with rhumatoid arthritis)and my partners daughter is having some turmoil with her BF and is moving out and into a rental,and we are trying to help her out.She has a 3yr old son,that is involved,and we are taking her 3 cats in,on top of it all because the only place she could find wont allow her cats-and she did not want to lose them completely.She is not safe to stay with her BF as he is hurting her.I am very very sorry to have to decline to take the birds,right now.I really wanted to give them a good home.It just would not be the best timing to give them all what they need to feel safe and secure here.My life has just been turned upside down.I hate to go back on my promise to you,I am not like that,and have been struggling with the concept of weather to still take them in or not.When it comes down to it,its whats best for the birds.I would not be being fair to them,if I took them at this point and time.

I hope you understand,and are not too upset about it.I feel bad for doing this to you.I'm very sorry about this,and I hope you find suitable homes for them.

• Sounds so awful but maybe one awful thing too many? Or maybe her email address really was prophetic.

Morning, Birds

Love his white eyebrows!


The light was stranger than it appears in this picture. I have trouble getting sky shots to capture their full color.



Magpies are magnificent.



Today it's snowing. We're making plans to go back to L.A. at the start of November. My mother's back in assisted living, out of the hospital, but very confused about it all.

Gray Jay

We went on a lovely hike today near Lizard Head. There was snow under all the pines but the trail was clear and we'd never hiked it before. No human prints on the trail, and no one passed us in either direction. It wasn't a huff and puff trail. There were so many hawks flying. They may have been golden eagles. Also we were stalked by a number of gray jays, like this cutey above.



That's Lizard Head behind me.

Molly gets really crazy when she encounters piles of snow but I didn't get any photos of her in the act.



Last night we put some spaghetti and garlic bread in the upstairs bird pan for the magpies and stellar jays. In the middle of the night Molly started barking frantically. It was serious enough for us to get up and find the big flashlight. Right outside the house a herd of maybe a dozen mule deer ran off in all directions. Mule deer don't usually move in herds.

Was the upstairs smell of garlic bread and spaghetti so enticing?

Pretty Bird

I think this is a female Western Tanager feasting on one of our elderberry bushes. Wish she would bring her boyfriend around, as the male is one of the prettiest US birds.

A Grouse and a Guest

The grouse was in the driveway. The guest came to stay last night. He didn't grouse and he wasn't grouchy. He's moving back to Connecticut after years in L.A. in the movie business. This was a stop along the way. I baked a very nice peach pie.

Elkswhere

On yesterday's hike we till didn't see the herd of 200 elk that were hanging around the last couple of months. But we saw four young and dark coyotes running through an elk grove.

I told my mother this.

"We saw four coyotes today, Mom."

a few "What? saw what?"s...

hen she said, "Were they animals or automobiles?"

pause..

Then I realized she meant Toyotas! We both laughed.



As we were heading back down the hill we heard a raucous bird call. I thought it was probably a magpie or some kind of jay, but looking up I saw it was a golden eagle. It was yelling at us. I think we'd interrupted its lunch a few minutes before, because we'd seen a half chewed squirrel just back on the trail.

The bird dropped a beautiful feather as it flew away, which I brought home, alone with one antler. In my bird book the feather was from an immature Golden Eagle.

A Nighthawk

We saw this frog faced bird on our hike today. It was quite camouflaged and unconcerned by us. About the size of a robin. Remember that little bird that was trying to fly in our windows? I identified it as a Western Flycatcher.

Snow White Moment

This little bird kept flying at the window screen while I was washing dishes. Not sure what it is, maybe a flycatcher?



We came upon this baby elk on our hike today. Molly was very good about it and didn't chase it even though it ran off.



This little chick ran right in front of our car. We were going slowly. There were four or five more chicks. I guess they're grouse, but it would be wild if they were Prairie Chickens, an endangered species.



Their mother was off to the side in the grass.

Rocky Mountain Bluebird

It wishes you a lucky weekend!