Tawny Overnight

Well, FurryGodmother hasn't been posting, so I'll throw one on here from time to time. This is DJ.

I didn't sleep well last night so was up by 4:45am while FGM was still fast asleep... but then about 530 there was a really loud mature shama call... REALLY loud... and I heard Susie talking with someone upstairs in the voice and demeanor she generally uses for the shamas.

Tawny the Fluffbutt

Yes, it turned out that Tawny the Fluffbutt had somehow gotten inside and managed to spend the

night inside with us without our noticing. Kinda surprising, since he's normally about clicking a lot and commenting on things, but he seemingly decided to keep his presence prudently on the downlow until morning, when he decided that he needed to declare himself, probably laying claim to the house much as Columbus did the New World.

So he flitter around awhile once the sun started coming up, perplexed as is often the case when they make it into our upstairs, which is mostly windows. He ultimately found the open door though, and didn't seem overly traumatized, in that he has been inside a bunch more today yelling at us for food.

Fluffbutt1, known as "Fluffy", gone for 10 days now

About 4 days ago we got what will probably be the last visit from his sister Hawky, who we hadn't seen in about 3-4 days and who showed up inside breathing heavily and looking a bit like she'd played a few games of badminton. Life is tough on these young birds, who have the instinct to go out and pick fights, and don't have the mass, experience, or skill to win them. Evolution is basically betting their lives that there has been a recent vacancy in a shama territory, even though that's hardly ever true.  We made the offer for her to stay in and have mealworms rather than throwing herself out again, but she decided to take her chances... as they all do. Well, all but Cheepy, he kept coming back and hanging out inside until the fluffbutts were born and they all got crazier about chasing him away.

Bird, feeling surly

So now the only birds were' seeing are Bird, Birdlet, and Tawny. No sign that birdlet is sitting new eggs yet, but she may be if last year is any indication. Yesterday Bird decided to come into the kitchen and do his full-volume adult-male shama territory call, which sounded like he was on a public address system. Probably the loudest he's ever heard himself too, good acoustics. And he certainly did it because we weren't paying attention to him. He used to be freaked out about coming inside, and then after trying to kill Cheepy got trapped in the house and had to overnight, which he was not happy about. Spent the night sitting on the stainless steel whipped-cream maker on top of the hutch. I figured that after that close proximity he'd be weirded out by us after that, but if anything he decided we were even more harmless than he had previously believed.