NICE.

I'll take that trade-off!

Love this!

But we always need to remember that the joy of moments like these usually come through tears.

Hey, I'm loving these extra treats on this thread!

Thank you guys for sharing YOUR birdie stories! SO neat to see and read and savor!

I'm amazed at how much we've learned about bird behavior, just hanging out here and observing. I guess that's the scientific method at work, 'eh? Oooooooooohhh, science! Can't have THAT, 'eh?

My husband and I have started "playing" with our birdies. He immediately wanted to start looking up things online, researching just what these species were - what kind of birds do we have in this little microclimate? Then he found there was a formal name for the little birdies I was calling "Tuxedo Birds" because I didn't know what they were. They're "Black Phoebes." And once you discover what the bird is, then you start discovering other stuff about that bird - where its habitat is, in the country; what it eats; its mating and nesting behavior; its migratory habits if any; AND its calls.

And these websites like the Audubon Society - https://www.audubon.org -- OR Cornell University's allaboutbirds.org -- check 'em out!

He started looking for local info, like for example, birds of Westwood and birds of L.A. and thereabouts. Google is your friend! What's really neat is, these sites have recorded bird calls on these various pages. And those are COOL! Sit outside and play with 'em! Click on the bird call and listen! If that's one of the bird species in your neighborhood - YOU CAN START TALKING TO THOSE BIRDS! AND THEY'RE LIABLE TO ANSER BACK!!!!! We found that is exactly what happened. The birds of that species will likely recognize "their" sound. And they'll acknowledge it. Sometimes they'll even look at you. You can see in their head movements that they're recognizing it. They'll think another bird like them is calling out and they'll be looking for it. And they may even recognize that it MAY be coming from YOU!

We've done it with the Black Phoebes and the House Finches and the Nuttall's Woodpeckers and the Mourning Doves and the Western Scrub Jays and it's been ASTONISHING!!! Not only have they talked back, but they've been "working out" in our back yard. We've been sitting outside on our little balcony and watching - while the Black Phoebes (and the newest ones, too, I think) are diving and swooping and flapping and making circles and loops and gliding from one tree branch across the back yard to another tree branch in a tree next-door, and more. Up to our roof and down, yapping and chirping, sailing and zooming over and around and across. My husband is convinced they're yelling for me out there, and that they recognize me. Maybe it's because I have a noticeably contrasting white head (my collar-length white hair, kinda hard to miss). Maybe it's because they recognize me because they're sitting in the trees and on the power lines on our street, overlooking our house, and waiting for birdseed every morning and they see me dumping a cup or two of seeds out there every day. Maybe it's because they recognize me for coming outside and staring up at the nest and taking photos and observing them and checking on them multiple times a day.

It's really amazing. I think they're communicating with me/us. MIND-BLOWING!!!! Always perks me up. Last week during the whole Charleston horror, I spent a fair amount of time observing the birdies. Made me feel a little better.

I try to be a good caretaker. I think the birdies know it. But who can say, really?

Well Maggie, if you don't want gay marriage, then DON'T HAVE ONE!!!!!

Nobody's holding a gun to anyone else's head and forcing them to marry someone of the same sex.

Nobody's holding a gun to anyone else's head and forcing them to discard their opposite-sex marriage and replace it with a same-sex one.

Although, I sometimes wonder if - adding a gun into the picture might make them change their minds?

FANTASTIC!!!!! Yes, it's been a very encouraging week.

And THAT is MY "sincerely-held belief"!

Yes. Sigh... I'm afraid so.

Well then, you and I need to figure up some good places to hide!

I forgot to add another saying that's frequently flung around inside our house:

"Light/Get/Strike a match!" or its corollary "Light it!!!" Aw crap, dammit Charlie - NOW you have me swept all the way back to college and this house in which I tended to hang out, all the time. There weren't any sororities or fraternities, but on-campus dorms and "houses" instead, and of course the off-campus crowd. I wound up pretty much "living" in my then-boyfriend's room that he rented from this house in one of the school's adjacent neighborhoods. One of the housemates specialized in blue-flaming. I can remember laughing until I choked! Sometimes it literally hurt. I have such an infantile sense of humor sometimes.

What did I learn in college? I learned about radio, pot, sex, and blue flames!

IGMFU!

"I Got Mine, F-U."

Well, that one might hurt a little - because he LUVVVS a pretty girl.

Maybe that's why they're so hellbent on forcing their preaching on the rest of us?

'Cuz their own home-grown "congregation" is unruly and/or dwindling? But they need to remember - if their offspring is doing this, too, they didn't suck it outta their thumbs - as my dear late mother-in-law frequently said. They take after the parental example they see before them day-in and day-out.