Birds

I never been a bird watcher or lover for real although I still have warm feelings for a bird I met in my childhood in a petshop. It was a big black bird with intelligent eyes and we looked at each other through the bars. We are out of sugar, he said. He spoke (or was it a she?) clearly and knew more phrases. This beo was the first talking bird I met. After all these years, I still think of this bird and hear his voice: we are out of sugar.

For a while, I thought about giving my ex-partner a parrot. It was a wish, but after I had studied this bird more closely, I decided not to do it. Draughts would be disastrous and a parrot also has to take a shower and then there is all that dust. Besides, a parrot gets old and needs a partner and the accommodation needs to be cleaned. I already knew who would have to do that, as this bird was not really my thing.

Years later, I had an owl and another one and I also had owl chicks. My owl was a super mother but when it came down to it, I was her partner. The man who fertilised the eggs didn't stand a chance. My owl died and I still think about her.

I am not fond of birds. It has been a number of years since I raised young birds that fell out of the nest. I have also stopped caring for the animals in the birds' shelter when their owners are on holiday. I am mainly a predator so I love birds of prey. Not the sparrow that falls from the roof, the pigeons that dirty everything and I feel nothing for the magpie, jackdaw, cuckoo or woodpecker. When it comes to recognising birds, I learn slowly. I will acknowledge the aforementioned, just like a goose, swan, chicken, cockatiel, robin and hoopoe. All of them, like the swallows, fly almost in my face. They don't care about me; my barn looks more like an aviary or dovecote than a barn. I will be honest. The more years go by, the less I like the birds that shit on everything, the noise they make and their destructiveness. I no longer bother to pick up fallen birds, take care of them and this pigeon plague? I remove every nest I see. A pigeon never comes alone. It is always a pair and each nest is good for another two pigeons that will stay, defecate all over the place and drive my wolves and me to madness. This year, I have removed every pigeon nest I saw. Some nests were empty, some had eggs and some had youngsters. I fed the eggs and youngsters to the wolves and threw the nests on the compost heap. I think I have fewer pigeons now, although there are still a few fat ones on and in the barn, making a terrible mess of it.

The photo above I used for a prompt. Happy writing to all!

Source photo: pixabay.com