That’s for the birds!

While in Florida, my sister and I stopped at a café on the Boardwalk. We sat out on the patio near the water, and were entertained by birds. A couple of sparrows were at my feet eating crumbs, and I tossed them down a couple of pieces of bread. A short while later, one of the sparrows hopped up on my table and just looked at me with its head cocked. I pinched off another piece of bread and intended to lay it down near the bird, but she plucked it right from my fingers before I had a chance to do that. That was petty cool. So I then held out another piece toward a sparrow on the ground, and sure enough, it plucked it right from my fingers and flew away.

This cafe was in Mt. Dora, not where the birds ate my bread.

Which reminds me of a time some years back when I was going to feed some Canadian geese at a Tennessee park, and they not only plucked the food out of my hand, but tried to get my fingers in the process.

One of the geese at Deibert Park chased my pretty Samara around last summer…

Then there were the beautiful Lorikeets at the Nashville Zoo (I’d post a pic but they were all lost in the great computer crash of 2009) who would sit on your finger and drink nectar…or in my case bite a thumb.

We have a couple of bird feeders in our back yard. Squirrels eat there, too, even though we put out squirrel food, as well. Last Friday, a dove hit my back door (sliding glass door) pretty hard. It didn’t knock itself out, but it was dazed. Lucy, our big mutt outside, came running up to check it out….so I opened the door to chase her away, and the dove took off flying. A hawk was right on her tail. The poor dazed dove didn’t have a chance.   I didn't take pictures...but here are some more Florida pictures:

Mt. Dora Boardwalk

Central Florida Zoo

Central Florida Zoo

Here’s one for the dogs:

Everybody knows Peppy is Ole Boy's third son. My nephew called last week to talk to him about a computer problem. But when Ole Boy first answered, Nephew disguised his voice and said he was from Animal Control, and they'd picked up a little white dog running around in our neighborhood with a hypodermic needle stuck in his back. Ole Boy was looking around trying to figure out where Peppy was and telling Nephew, "…well I have a little white dog, but I know I didn't leave a needle in his back...."