Bird Story

E-mail Subscription

Receive an e-mail notification of new posts on this site:

I did a little research and discovered that cataracts in birds are quite common and that a veterinary surgeon can operate to remove the cataract in some cases. I do not think that I will subject Baby1 to a stressful trip to the vets though. I think being stuffed in a cardboard box then bounced along a 20 minute walk and opened into a strange indoor room might upset him far more than a naturally and slow occurring blindness taking over one eye.

Apparently, in the wild, blindness only affects a bird in the realm of food provision and safety from predators. There will be no problem with our semi-wild 'pet' pigeon going hungry, but if the eye is completely covered in cataract I may start to 'stable' Baby1 in the dunny or entryway overnight for safety's sake.

According to www.provet.co.uk, turkeys can get cataracts due to a lack of vitamin E, so I may take a look and see if there are any vitamin E high seeds or other birdable foods that I can pop into our pigeons' diet. Luckily, it is only a part of one eye affected at the moment. Hopefully it was just an injury rather than a defect or disease, and will not spread over the entire pupil. It does not seem to bother him yet, and he still chases Bebe2 coo-fully off my (his?) windowsill oftenly.

Vote

Add Comments

[ Link ]

Posted By: sandeye - Category: No Category

Email this Post to a Friend

BIRD UPDATE:

June 30th 2008 16:45

I managed to get a piccie of a red wattlebird & an ‘almost’ photograph also. Alas, they are not yet locally tame, so I had to use the full zoom, meaning the picture is not great. However, it should give the general idea of the bird. It is something similar to a thrush for any English readers.

Here is the ‘oops’ that was supposed to be the same bird - however, it jumped out of shot JUST as my camera focused and caught the image.

The only decent photo on my camera this week was of a pair of cockatoos. Regular readers are probably quite fed up with cockatoo pictures by now, as they are fairly tame and allow me to take many images before flying away.

Vote

Comments (2)

Add Comments

[ Link ]

Posted By: sandeye - Category: No Category

Email this Post to a Friend

Pigeon update for June

June 26th 2008 16:20

As I mentioned in my last post, I have not spent very much time mingling with my feathered friends recently, due to being tied to the study and my computer changeover. Having a son hanging desperately for the old computer somewhat rushed me, I must confess. However, at seed times I managed to keep up to date.

Smokey and Spotty have only been down once every 3-4 days recently. I guess they have endeared themselves to some other food supply source! I tossed out some stale pizza crust 3 days ago. The pigeons and a ½ their size baby starling were munching the crumbs in the yard. The starling was a cheeky fellow, he kept nipping the pigeons tails to try to get them to let him have the crumbs! He wanted some too!

That is not the only tail biting going on around here. Bebe2 bit Smokey’s tail to attempt to obtain pride of coo-placebirdship on the windowsill!!!

For some reason, there were pigeon feet running acrposs the roof early this morning - before dawn!! Those nocturnal cuties!!

Vote

Add Comments

[ Link ]

Posted By: sandeye - Category: No Category

Email this Post to a Friend

The laundry meal

June 23rd 2008 15:07

I have spent the past 10 days stuck in the study, therefore not seeing much of what has been going on in the yard apart from at seed-feed times. Buying a new computer and manually transferring half the data via dial-up and email attach does tend to keep one office bound, sigh…

On the few excursions I have made for such purposes as cooking dinner or changing the birds water, I did manage to pick up a little news. We have attracted a red wattlebird to the poinsettia. The yellow poinsettia is flowering its colorful wintertime leaves and along came the wattlebird! I first noticed it whilst washing up, making it’s distinctive noise. Having wet hands, I was not able to grab the camera though

[ Click here to read more ]

Vote

Add Comments

[ Link ]

Posted By: sandeye - Category: No Category

Email this Post to a Friend

Heron returning

June 18th 2008 16:35

Our friend the heron is back, though I had not seen him for some time recently. As you can see, we have conveniently left our back yard grass fairly long. The garden needs a spring clean, and would have suffered such this past weekend, had I not been sprinkled in rain every time I set foot out the back door…

Here is our comrade heading towards my vegetable patch - which is the only part of the yard other than the mid lawns I have attended to in 2 weeks! Oh well, it makes it great for the birdlife

[ Click here to read more ]

Vote

Add Comments

[ Link ]

Posted By: sandeye - Category: No Category

Email this Post to a Friend

Pigs around the place

June 17th 2008 00:56

The city pigeons fly in in bunches numbering from 2 up to a half dozen or more. They swoop down from the clouds and hang out in our yard. Here is a photo of one local flock awaiting seed time recently. (Please forgive the grid of my kitchen fly screen!!)

[ Click here to read more ]

Vote

Add Comments

[ Link ]

Posted By: sandeye - Category: No Category

Email this Post to a Friend

Berry-birds

June 11th 2008 16:32

The city pigeons seem to be enjoying our privet tree recently. I managed to grab a couple of photos of some of them sneaking the berries to eat - after eating their provided seed feast!

I know, its those juicy black berries they're after - and I am sure the real estate and property owner are grateful to the birds for eating them, rather than letting them drop and grow more 'weed' trees in our yard. The council will be none too pleased though, as privet is looked upon as a pest species and the bird droppings could sprout any place about our town

[ Click here to read more ]

Vote

Add Comments

[ Link ]

Posted By: sandeye - Category: No Category

Email this Post to a Friend

Cockatoo invasion 3

June 9th 2008 16:27

Spotty got a little adventurous - she never usually goes near other birds, except occasionally the pigeons if she is starving. Maybe she is forgetting to be shy.

Just so that you can see how many there were, I have included a shot of a congregation of cockatoos lined up on the carport roof. Quite a family

[ Click here to read more ]

Vote

Add Comments

[ Link ]

Posted By: sandeye - Category: No Category

Email this Post to a Friend

Cockatoo invasion 2

June 6th 2008 19:19

I could not stop myself. There I was, throwing out pieces of unwanted spice-bread and snapping pictures of the cockatoos as they munched in delight.

Looking up afterwards, I spotted one bird peeping down over the roof at me. He was so cute, I had to take his photograph also. I mean, just look at him, could you resist if you were holding a camera?

I also got a couple of shots of them eating the morsels - eventually. They were jolly fast at snatching them up and shooting out of shot, though

[ Click here to read more ]

Vote

Add Comments

[ Link ]

Posted By: sandeye - Category: No Category

Email this Post to a Friend

Cockatoo invasion 1

June 3rd 2008 17:20

Every so often, I will hear a screech or two, or even more. Oftentimes, it is caused by a cockatoo in the yard, investigating the bird seed tray, checking for sunflower or corn seed donations, or trying to see what all the pigeon fuss is about. Such a happening occurred over the past weekend, just as I thought I would have no photos to share with my bird blog readers this week due to being stranded at home.