Freedumb!

I woke up this morning with THIS sitting on my face.  (And it didn't even tell me it loved me.  I was under the impression an "I love you" was somewhat de rigueur, when sitting on somebody's face.  ;-)

I woke up this morning with THIS sitting on my face. (And it didn’t even tell me it loved me. I was under the impression an “I love you” was somewhat de rigueur, when sitting on somebody’s face. ;-)

In addition to having a moth on my face, I woke up with a gull looking in the window. I’d forgotten to set my alarm, and overslept by nearly three hours, during which time the morning crowd had emptied the feeder. The poor gull looked terribly confused. Ordinarily, breakfast’s served by seven, at the latest — but here we were, the morning half-gone, and nothing on the table.

The gull was so hungry, it didn't even fly away, when I leaned out the window to fill the feeder.  Its face was already in there, when I upended the seedbag.  It ate and ate, while seeds cascaded over its head.  Those minigulls must be eating it out of house and home!  (Speaking of the minigulls, their wings seem to be developing quite nicely.  They're nowhere near flying, of course, but there are definite signs of feather growth.)

The gull was so hungry, it didn’t even fly away, when I leaned out the window to fill the feeder. Its face was already in there, when I upended the seedbag. It ate and ate, while seeds cascaded over its head. Those minigulls must be eating it out of house and home! (Speaking of the minigulls, their wings seem to be developing quite nicely. They’re nowhere near flying, of course, but there are definite signs of feather growth.)

I spent most of my day working — I’m deeply entrenched in a nice, meaty project — but I did find a spot of time for the outdoors, somewhere in there:

Ceci n'est pas un oiseau.

Ceci n’est pas un oiseau.

Bird Tongue Bonanza

A couple of months ago, my sister requested pictures of bird tongues. Eager to oblige, I’ve been poking my camera in crows’ faces ever since. Sadly, the crows have proven too dignified to get their tongues out. This gull, on the other hand —

Very attractive.

Very attractive.

— oh, that’s nasty, with the bird spit!

Most appealing.

Most appealing.

On a related note, I can’t wait for the sun to come back! I’m getting well tired of cloud cover, early sunsets, and grainy low-light photography. I refuse to use the flash on birds — I’m certain they’d hate that — so I’ve got to make do with ambient light. At the moment, there’s not much of that, so please excuse the side-order of noise with your bird tongues.

(Also, fellow bird enthusiasts, if you’re reading this, and you’ve got bird tongue shots, let’s see ’em! Especially if lorikeets are involved.)