Cool Bird Facts images

Some cool bird facts images:

Yellow Tweetie Bird


Image by Pamela Stocks
Well, it is not a Canary. That much I do know, but, since I know more about brain surgery than birds, instead of a diatribe of facts from me, today I shall rely on my readers to tell me what this little exotic fella, seen at the Mariposario in Icod de los Viños, is. Now don’t let me down. There is a hat tip for anyone who comes up with the answer!

See where this picture was taken. [?]

” ‘Feed the birds,’ — that’s what she cries — while overhead, her birds fill the skies…”


Image by Sheree (Here intermittently)
I’ll bet most of us recognize those lyrics from one of the most beloved tunes from the Mary Poppins movie of the 60s, "Feed the Birds."

I have sung my grandchildren to sleep with that song hundreds of times, and I fully expect to sing the song again many times more, but I never expected to meet the "bird woman of London," for that is what I have decided to call her. And she was totally tickled by the name.

I was wandering near Trafalgar Square here in London–a cold dreary rainy day. David was buying magic props in a store in Charing Cross Station.

There is a wonderful old church, "St. Martin-in-the-Fields." I was first attracted by the fact that the church has a cafe inside its crypts, and then to its beautiful architecture both inside and out.

But around back — that’s where I found the magic.

I had collected David from the magic shop and wanted him to see the old church and the cafe in the crypt.

We were randomly taking shots when I espied an old woman sitting on a stone step and surrounded by hundreds of pigeons. She had a plastic grocery sack near her from which she withdrew one unshelled peanut after another.

I watched as she cracked each peanut and held the kernels out to the greedy pigeons.

"Oh, oh, oh," I thought, "This is the bird woman in the song. She’s here." And over I went to make the woman’s acquaintance.

Agnes. This is Agnes, a woman of great stories and even greater dignity. I have never had a homeless person (she calls herself a "nomad") turn down proffered money, and yet she did. She simply wouldn’t take my 20 pound note — not for herself, not even for her birds.

Agnes and I began to talk. She is 65 years old, and believes that because we are animals, we are better suited to the cold. She says it’s not the cold and damp that does us in — it’s the heat. She sleeps on stone floors with a light cotton blanket.

She believes all God’s animals must be fed and cared for. She has been step-mother to a baby squirrel named Searlee, two baby foxes, and now hundreds of pigeons.

She once lived in Glasgow — in the tenements. She told me that when you sat quietly enough that all the animals would come out. Even the rats, which she doesn’t consider vermin. She calls their movements the "true ballet."

We chatted easily for over a 1/2 hour until my bones couldn’t take sitting on the cold stone step anymore, and I had to say goodbye to my new friend.

I gave her my email address and she says she will try to write, but she has to queue up for her 20 minutes on the Internet in the shelter with the rest of the homeless.

What a beauty. She doesn’t look homeless to me; she looks like she should be modeling for a Dove commercial. But knowing what I know of Agnes, that would just never come to pass.

May the Lord richly bless you and smile upon you, Agnes. And if He is willing, I will see you once again.

With much affection, I dedicate this image to Agnes, the "Bird Woman of London" and to my grandchildren.

~~Sheree/Nana~~

Here is a shot from David’s perspective.
www.flickr.com/photos/41659872@N00/4329287449/

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