FEATURE


Why won’t you use your shed? Because of Archie and Lena’s age, I worry they’ll suffer from the cold. Their nest box is at the back of a wooden shed in which are their food bowls and their perches, an electric light and a greenhouse heater. When the shed door is closed, a porthole allows them to come out each morning.


Do you imagine that they roost in this cosy shed at night? No, they don’t. Unless, I brave the dark and cold and put both birds into the shed they prefer to roost outside. One freezing December night I couldn’t find them. I searched the whole aviary by flashlight. Nothing. Who’d steal two aged Orange wings? One of my students was visiting. ‘I’ll take a look.’ He returned to the kitchen laughing. His sharp. young eyes had spotted the


pair. They’d hidden themselves deep in the branches of fir tree branches that I tie to the aviary supports. The flashlight had reflected in Lena’s eye. I’ve tried many strategies to persuade them to roost voluntarily inside their shed. None have worked. For the last two winters I’ve given them choice. ‘If you insist on staying outside,’ I tell them, ‘you can.’ Although I provide these old Amazons with three bowls of food daily, they remain quite slender. Does the cold of East Anglia winters keep their metabolism high? They indulge in some quirky habits. Archie always perches in front of Lena. But when their breakfast bowls arrive each morning, she clambers into the shed to eat; Archie does not join her for some time. Their only vocabulary is ‘Hello,’ followed by a belly laugh. This they will call out


BIRD SCENE 35


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48