feathered friend

Tags

bird, birds, Dublin, feathered friend, frequent visitor, photography, photos, sparrow

Over the past few weeks my tiny back yard has had a frequent visitor – a little, ruffled, sparrow, who tilts his head and pauses for a while.

I have no idea what this feathered friend is looking for, since the seeds I have put out don’t seem to interest him. And he doesn’t linger long enough for me to figure out what he is actually doing.

And I have to say that I have been looking forward to his frequent visits and would love to encourage him to stick around for a while (any tips welcome). There is something so cheerful about the way he cocks his head, chips and flutters his wings that makes me smile – a welcome (if short) distraction from my computer screen.

And hopefully one day, maybe soon he’ll bring a friend – after all one sparrow doesn’t make a summer!

a German relative since I can’t seem to catch my little visitor with my camera

lucky, yucky bird poop

Tags

bird, bird poop, birds, Dublin, lucky, sunny afternoon, superstition

I can’t believe what happened to me yesterday. It was a sunny afternoon and I had just come back from one of those appointments, where you have to fill in lots of forms and never seem to have them all right or are always missing one.

My neighbours were outside watching their kids play on their running bike. I joined them for a little while for a quick chat when suddenly I became a standing target.

A bypassing bird decided it was the perfect time to relieve itself and, with no consideration for us earth-dwellers, dropped some poop which landed on my hair and shoulder. Not all of it but enough of it to make me feel not so lucky- and the bird  didn’t even stop and say sorry.

I have no idea who come up with the notion that being pooped on by birds brings you luck, but whoever it was probably was never pooped on. And I wonder if maybe the belief was created to make the poopee feel less bad about the fact that they are covered in yuck.

But maybe I should just decide to take the superstition and believe that “wealth from the heavens” is now coming my way to make up for the sticky, white inconvenience. After all who says lucky things can’s come in yucky packages?

it is done – the birdhouse has been hung

Tags

bird house, birdhouse, birds, feeding birds, home improvement, irish birds

If you read my post this morning (sunny Saturday) you’ll know that I wanted to hang up my birdhouse today. It has been long overdue and the little bakery (Backerei is the German word for it) has been making me feel guilty ever since I unpacked it after my trip to Germany in August.

So now I feel very happy that when I look out of my study window I see the little birdhouse perched on the wall, waiting for some hungry sparrows, cheeky starling, sweet blue and green tits and with lots of look maybe even a robin will venture by.

But since I do live very close to town I’ll have to just wait and see if those few feathered friends I have seen in the past find this new feeding place.