He had an advantage, he trusts humans

recently noticed that Peanut returned, though he’s older now and no longer looks like a kid. Peanut was introduced as “adopted” when Durian (Durduron) showed up and last night Durian stayed here until about 6:40PM when it gets rather dark.

Durian is no longer a youngster; the food we gave him and the training I gave him (e.g. how to stand stable on the door knob) make him increasingly indistinguishable from the adults.

Unlike him, Peanut developed little or not much in terms of size.

Birds that trust humans are bound to benefit. Just don’t trust evil humans.

New addition to the kitchen

oday the “sick bird” did not look so sick and the babies seem to have almost matured fully, which means they’re “winter-ready”. I’ve managed to find nigo for Rianne today. It’ll come in handy. The kitchen is gradually adding all sorts of items typically found only in the far east. That makes the food better.

This afternoon we’ll visit the birds at the park again. Tomorrow we go to town to sort out some things, then take it easy and focus on news.

It’s still surprisingly warm (for this season) this afternoon. Tomorrow it’s expected to be above 20 degrees.

All good so far

IVE months ago we set up the shells’ tank to split them apart from all the fish. All the shells seem healthy (to date I only saw one or two dead shells, that’s less than 1% of the whole) and they seem increasingly active too. If their population keeps growing, however, oxygen capacity will decrease. Then a bigger tank might become necessary.

The shells or snails seem to be of Malaysia origin (no predators in the tank though). They came with our loaches. They reproduce very fast.

Already loved

oday we gave names to the two baby birds that hang around here, sometimes overnight. Rianne has called the brown one “durian” and the grey one “peanut”. It’s looking like they’re here to stay and I can babysit them just to make sure no cat tries to ambush/hunt them.

Second time in a week

ack in March, for the first time, we noticed a bird staying at the window all night long (until daytime). Sometimes we wonder if it’ll happen again.

Something similar is happening several times this week, as baby birds either sleep at the windows or the higher slope, in effect staying here overnight. I think it’s generally safe, but it is also unusual and a generally bad habit. The darkness is a risk to them and they don’t have the advantage of collective vigilance (like adults alerting them in the face of nearby danger).

At the moment the aim is to help the small birds grow ahead of a cold winter.

Good news

oday we have a productive day.

Some years ago in IRC someone called me “badass” (I took that as a compliment) for how I had been covering abuse and corruption in the technical world. Today I published this long article about the EPO and there’s more to come. The EPO’s reply? Nothing, nada, zilch.

They refuse to respond to any queries. They’re secretive and corrupt.

Aside from that, we got good health news today (sorry if slow to publish blog posts so far today!) and I’ve made someone a card, will do articles soonish.

I think this day is a memorable one in a positive way.

Beefing up the animals

recently added several more birds to the feeding cycle, especially young ones. We must nourish them for autumn, then winter. Sometimes they hang around me when I sunbathe, so I can’t say “no”. They are demanding.

We’ve stocked up enough food for them to last until Christmas. Same for the fish, as all new fish are doing OK, I hope for 12 months to come (like the last time). The critical period passed for environmental adaptation and they have a lot of food.