FreeLists / va-richmond-general / [va-richmond-general] Out of sadness comes a new beginning

["IE Ries" <FEATHERCHASER@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I am sad to report that one my two remaining birds died on Thursday night.  
He'd been battling an increasingly worsening case of chronic sciatica, and died 
as I held him in my hands on Thursday night.
A friend and I were down in Norfolk attending the Birds & Blooms birding 
festival through the Norfolk Botanical Garden (which I highly recommend), but I 
decided it'd be best to come home.

My remaining bird, now all alone, needed time with me, and so I've been taking 
her with me all around the house.  I attached her play gym to the downstairs 
kitchen window so she could watch all the wild birds at the feeders, and she 
seems to really enjoy that.

On Friday morning, when I first brought her downstairs to the window, my 
resident Catbird (no, I'm not proprietary, ha ha) showed up to select morsels 
from the hanging tripod feeder like he always does.  Nothing new there...until 
he spotted my bird in the window.  The Catbird took a bit to position himself 
closer to get a good look, singing cheerfully all the while (you know how they 
are).  All that singing must have gotten Morning Sun's interest, and so she 
started to chirp and warble as parakeets will do.  

Now, this little sort of meeting went on for several hours all day long; the 
Catbird would come and go, each time coming close to inspect this strange new 
bird near the feeders.  Toward evening, I fell asleep on the couch, exhausted 
from being upset over the loss of my other bird, Spring Joy.  I woke up from 
dozing around 7:20PM and heard Morning Sun over on the kitchen window, warbling 
away happily and chirping from her window perch.

And I looked at the coffee table, where I had her little travel cage set up so 
she could get food and water, and noticed...that she was sitting on the roof of 
it, also napping.

Who was over by the window?  The Catbird.  In only a matter of hours, that 
Catbird had apparently learned how to imitate her voice completely, and was 
sitting on one of the feeders, looking in the window, and singing just like my 
parakeet.  EXACTLY LIKE HER.

Though I was feeling sad and rotten, I had to smile at that, as it seems my 
remaining bird has made a curious new friend (and of course, who isn't amused 
by the antics of Catbirds?).

Irene in Southside
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