Bird and band

When Nick came home from his walk this morning with a “come and see what I found”, I groaned and said, “I hope it’s not another bird”…I wasn’t particularly surprised that it was, as we seem to have a proclivity for finding birds in distress. This time it was a baby canary which he found on the fields behind Piccolo – it was on the ground, flapping, but not getting anywhere. It’s a dear little thing, about 8cm beak to tail, with a shrill cheap which it obviously enjoys the sound of. We do not. Feeding it today has been relatively unsuccessful. It flies a little bit but its wing and tail feathers are miniature. It likes to be on our heads or shoulders, or best of all in one of the pot plants, where it adds nitrates to the soil. So that is our new acquisition, yet to be named.

We had a good laugh in school this morning in science, where we learned that a mother cuckoo will oust one of the eggs of a small bird like a Reed Warbler, lay her own egg in its nest, then fly away. The cuckoo egg is similar in colour to that of the host bird’s eggs, although slightly larger, but the foster mother doesn’t notice. She incubates the egg which hatches before her own do, and while the baby cuckoo is still naked and blind it expels the remaining eggs out of the nest too. Meanwhile, the foster mother continues to feed “her” baby which grows rapidly, until he has outgrown both the nest and his adoptive mom. The mom, being a good bird, continues to feed the chick, having to sit on top of the overgrown baby to feed him! The picture in the book, although very accurate, was hilarious, and the boys and I were thoroughly tickled.

The boys came with me to the shops when I went for bread…Aaron to have a swing in the playground, and Caleb to walk across to Maisie’s Shop to buy a wooden recorder he had seen here. It’s rubbish quality, but he is so pleased with it anyway. We bought a book some time ago on playing the recorder, and already he has learned a few of the notes. Because of this purchase, the Piccolo kids banded together to form a music group. They initially called themselves the Three Boy Band but then remembered that Sappho plays the violin and should be included, so they are now called the Four Kid Group, aka C.A.T.S. A bit of practicing and lots of bossing about from all quarters produced an impromptu concert to which all the adults were invited. They set chairs out in front of Rob and Claire’s unit, then amidst much giggling and silliness, they played a few pieces. Aaron disappeared completely during the concert, overcome by shyness, but Caleb, Sappho and Tom each had a go on the ‘stage’ with their instruments (Aaron lent Caleb’s former harmonica to Tom, sold to Aaron by Caleb to afford the recorder). It was highly entertaining and a good effort on their part, even though it was completely disorganized. Tom was the MC and was a natural at it. I was needing to get back home to make supper, but no-one minded that it ran about 40 minutes late.

The appreciative audience: Jenna, Phil, Rob and Nick (above) and DT, Claire and Milly (below).