-- [ From: Conrad W. Selfors * EMC.Ver #2.10P ] --

Hey Tweeters :
Everything was going along quite nicely
here with my feeding stations; The California Blackbirds had taken a
hike and a good variety of local yardbirds had set up shop
......................and THEN IT
HAPPENED!.....................Starlings-Starlings and more Starlings.

Not really enjoying the large numbers of birds,
and the aggressive behavior, besides the large amount of feed that was
disappearing from my feeders, and after several days of getting
frustrated, I resorted to..................................pulling out
MY "CATCH-EM-ALIVE" Starling trap from beneath the back
porch. Within 15 minutes I had a live Starling inside one nice
commerical {semi-large} wire bird cage. I spent several hours
observing behavior. The bird appeared to work relentlessly at finding
a way to get out. The Bird spent the night in the cage in the living
room covered with a sheet. This morning within 2 hours of being
uncovered, that bird had raised one of the vertical moving sliding
entrance doors and escaped into my living room. I highly believe that
this bird made a conscious attempt at finding an escape method or route,
and proceeded until it succeeded.
Because of this
unique behavior, I had to reward this bird and let it have its freedom
again..........Be on the lookout for one very "intelligent" EX-
JAILBIRD.
Also: An interesting book, The Human Nature of Birds by
Theodore Xenophon Barber , supports bird intelligence concepts. Very
interesting reading.

Any Bites out
there??????

ps. Has anyone ever heard of the term "paddle
of ducks" when referring to a group of ducks sitting on the water?????

Captain Cormorant,
Conrad Selfors, Bainbridge Island, Washington Qyuc54a at prodigy.com