a little bulbul

Anyone who knows me knows I love animals in general, small animals in particular, and birds especially. This love of birds has rubbed off on Judge as well - and seeing him and O'Lime interact always makes me grin with joy. Adding his previous turtle and rabbit pets into the mix, we have decided in the future when we have a home of our own, we will have a pond outside where we can have turtles and ducks (because ducks are *cute!*), and we will have a rabbit and O'Lime (and perhaps a few more birds), and maybe a pot-bellied 'mini' pig somewhere in the mix.

Anyhow, today, during my lunch-break walk, I came upon a Chinese bulbul:

(it wasn’t this guy obviously - picture borrowed from here)

Bulbuls by the way seem to make great pets - every time I walk by the one close to my place or outside the beetlnut auntie's shop by a 7-11 in my old hood and whistle to them they get really excited, jump around in their cage and sing back. It is interesting how many common wild birds here are kept as pets - unfortunately there is this one small really cute kind that are often caught wild and kept in tiny, tiny cages as they sing so beautifully. Pretty terrible imho.

Back to my story: The bulbul in discussion didn’t have any flight feathers on one of it's wings. How did I notice this you ask? Well, naturally I often stop up and talk and whistle to the birds that are rummaging around in the leaves under the trees when I walk by them, and if one seems to be acting strange, I sit down for a while and study and talk'n'whistle to him until he flies off or there is some other reason I figure he’s fine.

So, as I was whistling to him I noticed one wing didn’t have any of those green feathers, and as I started following him, he didn’t fly away but rather jumpety-jumped away from me, though I got really close (made me think perhaps he used to be someone's pet). I sat down for a bit to contemplate what I should do, and watched him as he busily scavenged for food amongst the leaves and grass. I was thinking – should I throw my sweater over him and take him home so he can grow his flight feathers out and be safe?

But then I realized he’d probably be happier right were he was, with bushes to hide in, food to scavenge, and most importantly friends and freedom. I got up (after calling Judge to just talk it through with him as well), and headed off to complete my stroll and get back to the wonderful life that is dreadfully boring work (of which I only have 7 more work-days of - wooooooooooop!).

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