camwyn | There is a bird (Reply)

engaging in personal hygiene outside my window. No, seriously. There's some kind of flowering plum tree or something next to my window, and it's a very popular place for birds to land even when there's no fruit. Right now I am watching a sparrow scratch every itch it has, with feet and beak as seems appropriate... it's like watching a dog scratch a flea bite, then nibble at other itchy spots. Only it's, yanno, a sparrow. She's just sitting there, appily nibbling at this itch or that, turning her head through something like 100 degrees from base orientation to get at itches on her back, clawing at the side of her head with one foot, bending that teeny-tiny neck to get at a spot on her chest that seems to be giving her trouble, checking under her wings because you just can't get there with a claw. . .

Wish I had a big old tray of dust I could just put out my window for her. She'd be able to foof around in it to get rid of the mites that are probably causing most of the itching. I've seen sparrows do this. It's amazingly entertaining to watch, because they look so relieved; it's like watching someone who's just had a good massage.

"Nope. Not migrating today. Not foraging today. Gonna sit here and SCRATCH. . . . just SCRATCH for ten minutes solid. Because I itch, and it feels good to scratch, and because it's safe, and because I CAN."

Let the birdwatchers fuss over exotic species. I like seeing little brown birds.