This made me smile.

Magpie and whippet's unlikely friendship
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lancashire-45536348

Cool!

Awesome! So touching. Obviously love at first sight.

 Quote: tracey holden

This made me smile.

Magpie and whippet's unlikely friendship
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lancashire-45536348

One of my Basengis and I hand-raised a brood of magpie nestlings that had been blown down in a bad storm 40 years ago in Colorado Springs -- When they got big enough to fledge, I took them over to my parents-in-law's expansive & heavily wooded yard, where the 4 clutch-mates spent that summer ... And they returned there EVERY year, after over-wintering I don't know where /// Magpies are GREAT birds, highly intelligent & friendly, and some can even be taught to say a few human words !!! That was a wonderful experience while I was pregnant with my firstborn son (had to feed my baby birdies a concoction of hardboiled eggs & canned dogfood every TWO hours, LOL.) I named them Penguin, Orca, Shamu & Tuxedo

I've got courting collared doves and wood pigeons in the garden at the moment, and I could watch them all day! I watch a Kestral hunting every morning when I open up at work, and when I saw a barn owl the other week in the gloom first thing in the morning out with the beloveds, it made my day!

The mummy and daddy Chaffinch's have cleared off for now, and I miss seeing their frenetic activity trying to feed the chicks, it's really therapeutic losing myself for ten minutes in the day to enjoy the birds

 Quote: Candi Campbell

 Quote: tracey holden

This made me smile.

Magpie and whippet's unlikely friendship
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lancashire-45536348

One of my Basengis and I hand-raised a brood of magpie nestlings that had been blown down in a bad storm 40 years ago in Colorado Springs -- When they got big enough to fledge, I took them over to my parents-in-law's expansive & heavily wooded yard, where the 4 clutch-mates spent that summer ... And they returned there EVERY year, after over-wintering I don't know where /// Magpies are GREAT birds, highly intelligent & friendly, and some can even be taught to say a few human words !!! That was a wonderful experience while I was pregnant with my firstborn son (had to feed my baby birdies a concoction of hardboiled eggs & canned dogfood every TWO hours, LOL.) I named them Penguin, Orca, Shamu & Tuxedo

OMG, Alzheimers-R-Us strikes again !!! Can't believe I spelled BasenJi with a G

i doooo love birds too. While still in Switzerland we saw once from far an exotic bird on a branch in neighbour's yard. We thought first it was a kakadu because his way of moving in sideway steps. In the following days we saw him regularly brushing over our swimmingpool taking a sip of water. He was very friendly and trustful. so we knew he must have an owner and informed every veteranary of the region and put advertisements in newpapers. But no one asked for him. One day I succeede to grab him from a tree and the put it in the bathroom. Couldn't let him free in our house, because of our cats.

I couldn't let him free outside as the risk was too big, that indigenous birds would kill him. Finally we luckily found someone who had a huge aviary with other psittaciformes., where he quickly felt himself at home.

But here with our dogs I wouldn't be able to have a bird. We have a wonderful species here which could easily be tamed. But Socks detests them. She get's crazy, when she discovers one, because they often stole treets I threw for the dogs.

So I'm extremely surprised of that sweet vid above.

 Quote: Christina Stockinger

i doooo love birds too. While still in Switzerland we saw once from far an exotic bird on a branch in neighbour's yard. We thought first it was a kakadu because his way of moving in sideway steps. In the following days we saw him regularly brushing over our swimmingpool taking a sip of water. He was very friendly and trustful. so we knew he must have an owner and informed every veteranary of the region and put advertisements in newpapers. But no one asked for him. One day I succeede to grab him from a tree and the put it in the bathroom. Couldn't let him free in our house, because of our cats.

I couldn't let him free outside as the risk was too big, that indigenous birds would kill him. Finally we luckily found someone who had a huge aviary with other psittaciformes., where he quickly felt himself at home.

But here with our dogs I wouldn't be able to have a bird. We have a wonderful species here which could easily be tamed. But Socks detests them. She get's crazy, when she discovers one, because they often stole treets I threw for the dogs.

So I'm extremely surprised of that sweet vid above.

Christina, you did WELL That birdied ended up enjoying a Safe & Happy life, thanks to you !!! Can't recall if I've shared this here before, but when we go twice a year for a mini-vacation in Carmel / Monterey, there is one wild SEAGULL in a flock by the hotel who answers when I call to him in my "Seagull" and flies down to visit with me on the balcony -- He sits right in my lap and I feed him raw SALMON ... Then he hangs around for some Human conversation in which I talk & he listens attentively /// Of course I've named him "Jonathan Livingston Seagull"

Even a seegull who is living in a flock? Incredible and funny.

Sad story: I've had once a Beo. He had to live in a cage much bigger than in the shop where we bought him. They had recommended us to buy a smaller one, because in the bigger one he would never become tame. I also had guine pigs in the same room and he learned to immitate their squieks, also some words I repeated often enough,some sounds of music and the flushing of the toilet. But he never got tame. He was afraid, when I put my hand into the cage, just to feed him and sometimes he pecked me. As a soft eater he also shit in a wide arc out of the cage.

Not because of that mess, but because I couldn't bear any more his being closed in a cage, always with fear and never able to fly moe than 2 or 3 flaps. I was lucky enough to know someone who worked in a zoo. They couldn't take him, but he knew a current visitor, who hade a huge space for birds, where they could fly long distances.

This happened about 50 years ago and I feel even nowadays sorry, when it comes to my mind again. I never bought any bird again, especially no exotic 0nes or other animal. Not only because I couldn't give them the surroundings they need, also because such a lot of them die during the flight to our countries. The ones I see here I love to watch and see living in freedom.

Nowadays people generally know about all this, nonetheless I very often see such or other birds in peoples homes, captured by boys who then sell them. Those birds never having the chance to fly again. No way to convince people not to hold a bird like this.