09/06/2026
This was much more interesting watching it and the clip we got doesn’t do it justice , I was tempted to delete the clip because Billy was barking but it’s the best clip that we got , its strange because Billy is not usually a barkey dog and he usually only barks if someone calls to the house or if its rainy , sunny , windy , cloudy ,hot , cold , if a bird flies over or if he hears a car .
Starlings were probably the most common orphans this year were Starlings who came from near and far with a special mention to the lovely couple who came all the way from Waterford ,
When the orphans start to feed for themselves we move them into an enclosure with a little aviary on the front where they get to see the world , we do this in groups where they are more or less the same age or state of development, sometimes the older ones might have to stay a couple of days extra to give some of the others a chance to catch up , if its more than a day or two then we go in and take the ones not advanced enough out and keep them for the next group , its not as complicated as I’m describing it but sin é .
We are following Bird Watch Irelands recommendations and were not putting out food for finches but Rosie and Mandy have planted several plants and shrubs that will provide food for finches or provided food for the insects they need for the breeding season. We do supply food for Starlings , Blackbirds , thrushes in the form of soaked dog food and mealworms , we deliberately attract them so our guys can join the flock and have a better chance of survival. When the time is right we open the hatch and the orphans come out and mingle with their cousins but in this case we had more going in than coming out and Rosie was shouting from the kitchen , your going the wrong way and those few words instantly gave me a flash back to around 20 years ago when we used to head off to a motorbike rally in Europe on our bike , I can remember where we found the time but I remember like yesterday when we were coming home from Estonia , we would usually avoid main roads on the way over and come home on the main roads , Rosie would often fall asleep , I could feel her helmet tapping off mine , I asked her once if she fell asleep because she trusted me so much or because I was boring riding a bike , I didn’t get and answer and Rosie didn’t have to hitch hike home , you would see fairly regularly recovery trucks towing trucks but the trucks being towed would be towed backwards and coming up behind them seems like they are coming towards you , I often had to give a second glance myself , we met one of these trucks and as we were get closer ,something hit Rosie on the leg and she woke up , usually she would look over my shoulder and say through the intercom , where are we ,I dozed off but this time she shouted , your going the wrong way , I said typical , always my fault as we overtook the trucks .
