This One's for Betty

Betty,

Tonight is our last night in the south. All month we have watched a heron named Henry. (We know that is his name because some canoeists who went by on the little canal behind our place said hello to him and called him Henry.)

He has been visiting the people across the canal from us and we've been watching him go up on their deck. Today they left and he looked so sad wandering around looking for them.

My husband was out grilling our supper, and Henry flew over and stood in front of deck. Henry is beautiful with a long neck mostly curled up under his beak, wonderful big feet, and tuffs of feathers and eyes that say, "I like people." I gave him what I thought he might like for food, but it was obvious he could get all the food he wanted out of the canal he just flew over. He just wanted company. Meanwhile our supper was getting well done!

You know I always think of you when the creatures come around.

Love, Carol

Me too. There is a little enole that visits my little parrot, Sport each evening when I put her cage on the screened front porch. This has been going on for several weeks. I go to bring in Sport and there's the little enole hanging on the screen right near the cage. I know these are just instinctive creatures, but it seems like they have a friendship.

They may be snarter than you think, DK. I didn't see this thread when it was first posted.

Dear DK
Can you send me a picture of Sport. Camille is an anole or American Chameleon. I have an idea about Sport and Camille. But first, I need to see Sport in color. Camille is all about colors. I imagine that she is so envious of Sport's beautiful colors that she comes to talk and bask in the shine of his feathers. I imagine that she is trying to talk him out of a few feathers for her own pleasures. She is like that, you know.

Love,
Betty

Sport is a girl and should not have any orange feathers - but she has a few......as a baby I thought she was male but her underside is not orange but a mixture of mostly green with some pretty orange mixed in.......sometimes I wonder

Sport is an African probably orginating in Tanzania. She likes to play, has no voice of her own but mimics whatever she chooses. She is 14, an old lady for a red-belly whose lifespan is generally 20 years. She says "hello" "what's up, doc" "what do you think" and other things I don't understand as well. She does great imitations of the microwave and the telephone. She whistles Fur Elise and Beethoven's fifth and some other flute solos my niece played for her that she liked. She has a low voice, sort of like a frog. She is a radio critic, impossible to drive with in the car without a cover if she does not like the music. She prefers the talk on NPR. If I change the station I either have to cover her or give up as she will outwhistle and outtalk the station to the point of distraction.

She has grown accustomed to being caged. Even if I leave her door open, she sits on top of the cage and does not fly around the porch. She could; she's not clipped. I leave the porch door locked to be certain no one accidentally opens it when she is on top of her cage. She does, however, immediately go to the top of her cage when I open her door.

The enole is gray on the screen (as the screen is gray).