For the birds.

Dog Izzy and I often have wildlife encounters on our little adventures. Usually squirrels and deer, although we've had near-misses with skunks and racoons and foxes, and that bear I mentioned a couple of weeks ago is still hanging around. Izzy usually has no interest in any of them. 

Birds being birds, one usually does not get close enough to them to have a tête-à-tête. But then we came upon this guy. 

He (I'm assuming it's a male, since it's got some color) ain't from around here. You may know what he is. I had to look it up. This is a budgie, native to Australia. Specifically this appears to be a recessive pied budgerigar, unless I miss my guess, going by the experts at the Budgie Academy. And since he didn't hitchhike here from Adelaide, I suppose he is someone's escaped pet bird. 

I have a feeling he's not going to make it in the wild. He was picking at something by the road and failed to notice the giant nose of my dog until it was close enough to inhale some feathers. Then, alarmed, the bird flew off like an arrow, peeping in panic. I'm glad his wings had not been clipped, although that would explain how he escaped -- one seldom sees pet birds shinnying down drainpipes. 

Can he survive a New York winter? Can he find food to his taste? Can he avoid being eaten by our local predators? Will he die pining for the scrublands, unable to find a mate in this asphalt jungle? Good luck, pal -- they say everything in Australia is trying to kill everything else, so I hope that means you have some good survival techniques. 

This crow, for one, did not. 

I'm not sure I've ever seen a dead crow before. They seem to be too annoying to die. And yet, this one is not sunbathing. The funny thing is, with all the scavengers around here, including its fellow crows, nothing has gone after it but the bugs. Maybe crow meat just sucks. 

Even the homeowners upon whose property the crow rests aren't interested in getting rid of the corpse. Or, as I have found from these folks on occasion, they are oblivious to anything outside their home beyond the walkway and the driveway. 

Package for you!

Well, if they give the grass another cut before the fall gets fully engaged, they're in for a surprise. I might have done a good deed and performed the last rites myself, but the wasps had gotten involved in the corpus and I'm sensitive to yellowjacket venom.

Man has always envied birds for their flight, but it's not an easy life. You have to eat a lot to survive and power that flight -- half their own weight each day -- and everything is still trying to kill you, including other birds. I think I'd even rather take my chances with Boeing.