‘Twas An Interesting Day

My yardman, hardly an apt description since he can do just about everything, invited my attention to a foreign bird flitting about one of my palms, and I identified it at a parakeet.

I tried to take a photo, but the optical zoom of my iPHONE 4 is not all that good and I gave away my digital Canon because it is now redundant.

There are flocks of exotic birds in San Diego County – the product of incautious owners. The weather is sufficient for even these tropical birds to survive, and in sufficient numbers that they do reproduce.

Later in the day, my yardman(sic) brought me the parakeet – he had captured it when it tried to feed in my bird feeder.

What does one do with a captured parakeet? We devised a temporary cage from a large plastic bucket with Koi pond netting on top (my Koi were rendered net-less today, since the early morning fog has passed and with that the major threat of Egrets), put out the e-mail call for the owner and/or a temporary cage (we have good e-mail newsletters in Hidden Meadows), and fed and watered the little thing.

Almost immediately, a parrot owner in the Meadows who had a spare cage offered its loan, and we met at the Deli.

My yardman has taken the bird home – I am afraid it will die of fright with my attack cat who this week alone has inadvertently left at least six fang marks in my arm – but my yardman lives literally next door and he will be back tomorrow to paint our bedroom.

Still, no word from the owner – who might not even be in the Meadows or have lost it recently. One never knows. We lost a parakeet almost 50 years ago and a neighbor returned it almost a week later.

We wait.