Lin about your avatar.

Yesterday I had to go rescue a little bird that flew into the kitchen window, it was a tiny owl, DH didn't want me to pick it up, figured it would bite me, I picked it up and and it was pretty feisty, I took it to my rescue basket but it wanted no part of that, it flew over to the shrubs by the shed and sat there for a few minutes, long enough for me to get the camera, I got a few shots, it was so cute.

I think the little owl is fine, here is the first photo I took after he landed in the shrub, he is leaning back at a funny angle with his wing to one side and you can see his left leg and claw hanging on to the shrub, still a little stunned, but he soon righted himself.

Click on image for best viewing.

Northern Pygmy-owl.

What a cute little guy! So glad he is all right.

You make a good birdie mommie. Thank you for being so nice to him. I am sure he appreciates it. Bet he has a headache. Poor Baby.

I saw a chickadee....one.....also I saw one dove....and one sparrow on the bird feeder, the first in weeks. Can this mean the hawks have moved on? I hope and pray they do.

The other day, last week one day the weather at the shore was really blustery and a flock of seagulls came by the farm for awhile.....we are only abouit 15 to 20 miles from the ocean the way the crow flies so I guess the ocean was really churning for them to come inland this far. They do frequent McDonalds because people feed them. Who says birds are not smart.

What a little cutie Margaret! Fabulous photos.

I think all the owls are gorgeous, and I was just thrilled to have held this one in my hands and so happy that he survived.

I bet!

That Northern Pygmy-owl is just mega.

Two cockatoos in one. Sulphur-crested Cockatoo and a Galah. The Sulphur-cresteds are in my black books at the moment having annihilated a few of my daylilies and blooms yesterday.

Oh dear, bad birdie, they are beautiful. I really like your feeder, have not seen anything like that around here.

I like that feeder too! A nice big roof on it & it looks like the pan tips so you can dump it out for cleaning easily.

Yes it is an excellent large feeder. It protects from even quite heavy rain. The pan comes out for easy cleaning (and for when I promise myself for the 1000th time that I will not feed the white cockatoos ever again). I got it at a native plant nursery and was quite struck by it when I spotted it.

Masked Lapwing. I think their two young have fledged this week. But it is so early in the season I am expecting them to nest again.

You have a lot of long legged birds there don't you Glen?

Yes Ann - along with the ibis digging through my garden at the moment after the thunderstorms last night. But my garden is for wildlife as well - but I clinch my teeth a lot - watching some of the seedlings being tossed into the air. These are birds people normally don't have in their garden too: so I have to keep on realising how blessed I am. Sigh.

We have ibis here too & sandhill cranes, both of which toss stuff into the air as they feed. I tell myself they're doing a good deed getting the bugs that I would have to battle.

Cranes would be so great to have in the garden: that would be Brolgas here. That would be cool. Alas, three Sulphur-crested Cockies got stuck into my tomatoes just now. There are enough to go round, however. Sob, sniff.

Ohhhhhhhhhh yehhhhhhhh, I forgot you have BIG birds like the Cockies that like to eat fruit & veggies. I bet they could wipe out a garden in no time flat!

Yes Ann, they can be quite devastating. I mean they are drop-dead gorgeous to look at. But several waddling through the garden leave bulbs, fruit, daylilies and any colourful flower in pieces. I am alert to them but it only takes a few minutes and you look out and there are five each holding very large tomatoes in the left feet munching away.

I watched a PBS show the other night about parrots, they had a lot of cockatoos, raised in captivity to sell to people as pets, omg... that was so sad, DH and I had tears in our eyes at the end of the show. There are thousands in rescue centers because people get rid of them because they can't stand the noise from their almost constant squawking or once mature they can get aggressive and attack or bite. Some of the birds get so traumatized they self mutilate themselves by plucking out all of their feathers. The people that take them in at the rescue centers were in tears at the huge number of birds that people asked them to take, some said if they couldn't take them they were going to take them to the SPCA and have them euthanized, but they had to turn them down because they have no more space.

My personal opinion is that no bird should have to live in a cage.