My aunt and uncle gave me a birdbath recently, and it now sits outside my study window. It didn’t take long for the local Piping Shrikes to start visiting.
They are the same couple that distressed my partner and me earlier in the year when their babies had fallen from their nest. We googled what to do as soon as we saw these baby birds on the ground. Despite feeling that they were vulnerable to the local cats, dogs and cars we took the advice of the experts and left them where they were, well almost. One kept wandering into the road no matter how many times we it back on the footpath. Both died. One seemingly from starvation as ants crawled all over it and the other was squished. Next year I am going to ignore the advice of the experts and put them in my yard and feed them. What sort of idiot parent just lets their kid wander into the road or get crawled on by ants?
Now the birds are utilising the facilities provided I thought I should add some more. I have planted lots of native plants, but they will take a while to grow. So ordered a bird feeder. When it arrived, I filled it with ‘Native Birdseed’. Not that cheap generic bird seed but the stuff that cost four times as much but looks almost the same.
I sent a photo of the Piping Shrike using the bird bath to my aunt and uncle with the caption ‘this is my new friend”.
They replied ‘That’s good…
