WingedHearts.org More love than you thought possible

Thusday afternoon before sunset, our wandering ex-patient, Butch, suddenly flew into the frangipani and landed beside me. You will recall Butch went blind and we had to keep her in a cage for over a week while we treated her eyes each day. Then she and Cass spent a day singing all around their territory, and both vanished. The birds have a much more complex life than we humans often give them credit for. Taking holidays, visiting friends and relatives, kids' sleepovers - they do it all. What exactly Butch has been up to we may never know.  read more »

Our butcherbird group (Butch and Cas are still AWOL) now consists of Dimpy, 3y.o., and Kerry (2y.o.) and two new birds. One seems to be from the intruder group who has changed groups, and we are calling him Terry, and one other who knows us so well we think it must be someone we knew years ago. Dimpy's older brothers, Teddy and Tommy, and his still-older brothers, Eddy and Freddy, are out there somewhere, and maybe this is one of them. The trouble is it's extremely hard to tell butcherbirds apart. Magpies are hard enough, but butcherbirds look almost identical to human eyes.  read more »

Poor Sophie magpie has still not let us catch her to take her to the vet for her flu and eye trouble. When I got the cage out, she knew it was for her and squarked and flew up into the tree. Dimpy butcherbird, and Mindy and Monty magpies tried out the cage, seemingly knowing that it wasn't there for them. I did get a bit of a feeling today that Sophie looked a little bit better, so I am keeping my fingers crossed.  read more »

As I mentioned last time, when we let Butch out, she went to Cas and they spent the day touring their boundaries calling out their song to all and sundry. The song now seems to include our telephone sound!  read more »

This morning we gave Butch a good feed, called her family, and let her out. Dimpy came over first and went around the other side of the cage between Butch and the interloper group of butcherbirds, and then when we opened the cage, flew back with Butch into their trees.

Then Butch and Cas did a tour of their boundaries. We heard out 'telephone' ring for the next hour all around the fields. It seems the telephone has become part of their signature tune now.  read more »

As you know, we're looking after our pied butcherbird, Butch, who got conjunctivitus that sent him nearly blind.  read more »

On Monday I told you about Butch our pied butcherbird's eye trouble. I had to return home from work early that day because we were supposed to go to an evening meeting, and so I got home while it was still light. I found Gitie by our frangipani tree talking to Butch, who, apart from detecting light changes had gone completely blind.  read more »

Butch, our 'first' pied butcherbird, who made friends with Gitie way back when Maggie was missing, and Gitie and I didn't know if he was alive or dead, and who cheered us up while we searched for Maggie, is ill. The last few days we've seen his eyes 'crust' up, and seeing is becoming progressively harder for him. We have been giving him bread soaked in antibiotics in the hope that it can help. Without catching him, there is nothing else we can do.  read more »

We've had a very interesting week watching (and participating) in the relationships amongst our butcherbirds. On the back side of the house we have our original pied butcherbird family, Butch and Cass and two of their adult children. Along the road is a new pied butcherbird group of five or six, two of whom are two older kids of Butch and Cass, namely Teddy and Tommy, who, I am quite convinced once saved Gitie's life by warning her of a nearby highly venomous snake, and chasing it out of our yard.  read more »