The Prodigal Waxbill
Posted: Tue Sep 09, 2014 9:30 pm
During the warm months in central Florida (April - November) I let my finches enjoy a semi-wild life in my screened-in pool enclosure. They get along fine and it keeps them very healthy.
This spring (April) I lost an OC waxbill through a tiny drainage hole in the corner of my porch. I secured the hole but the waxbill never came back. I figured he was headed for Miami or something.
And then a week ago (September) I was in my yard and I heard the familiar warbling from an oleander tree. There was no mistaking his little orange cheeks, which looked a more brilliant orange than I'd ever seen on him.
I set up a "patience trap" - a wire cage with a sprig of millet just inside an open door, and a length of kite string run through the bars to pull the door shut. After a half hour of sitting still (a cold beer helped pass the time), he went for the millet, I pulled the string, and I got my bird back.
I wonder where the hell he's been all summer?
This spring (April) I lost an OC waxbill through a tiny drainage hole in the corner of my porch. I secured the hole but the waxbill never came back. I figured he was headed for Miami or something.
And then a week ago (September) I was in my yard and I heard the familiar warbling from an oleander tree. There was no mistaking his little orange cheeks, which looked a more brilliant orange than I'd ever seen on him.
I set up a "patience trap" - a wire cage with a sprig of millet just inside an open door, and a length of kite string run through the bars to pull the door shut. After a half hour of sitting still (a cold beer helped pass the time), he went for the millet, I pulled the string, and I got my bird back.
I wonder where the hell he's been all summer?
