Dopey the little baby starling

Dopey is our new "zoo" (or family) member, depends of how human you think a bird can be.

Wednesday June 22. The sun was shining and it was very warm. Too warm for us but we don't complain. We haven't been blessed with nice weather recently.

We have a Dutch expression for weather being too hot: "It is that hot that the sparrows drop dead from the roof" (het is zó heet dat de mussen dood van het dak vallen).
But on Wednesday it wasn't a dead sparrow but a dead baby starling.
Tjep found it on our doorstep. It was so tiny and fragile. it must have been hedged from the egg not long ago as his little tummy was round and filled with egg.
We felt so sorry for the little fellow but couldn't do anything about it anymore.
It wasn't quite clear where he came form. Did the dog bring it home?

A few hours later we could hear little starling voices when Mum or Dad arrived with worms, flies and more delightful food. We now knew the nest was in the top corner of our roof, straight above the back door. We smiled and watched Mum and Dad flying on and of.

Monday June 28. Both dogs made a different noise than usually when they were playing and I went outside to see what was going on. Between the dogs, close to the backdoor, was another baby starling but this time very much alive.

I picked it up to save it from the joyful dogs and looked down on this little naked bird that didn't understand what was going on. His little eyes and ears still closed, just one or two fluffy hair-like feathers. He was so vulnerable and little.
No way could we give it back to the parents as we could not reach the nest.
Instead we adopted him.
Unfortunately we found one of his other brothers or sisters at the roof, dead.

Being succesful in raising little birds before we were certain we could manage it again.
We bought special food and a hypodermic syringe (without the needle of course....), gave him the name Dopey and started feeding him.
Our neighbour gave us a small electric blanket to keep him warm and we installed Dopey in a nest of warm cloths in the same container where our sparrow Fluffy was brought up 10 years ago.

Dopey felt comfortable and was always hungry. Not being able to see or hear, he accepted the syringe and my hands as being his Mum and Dad.

But little birds grow; they grow very fast as well!
Within a few days he changed from a naked bird into a bit bigger bird with small feathers on top of his little head. The first 2 photo's were taken 4 days after we found him.

His eyes and ears opened 2 days after he joined the family. The eyes were very small for a while and so different from how they are now (7 days after we found him).
Able to see and hear he very quickly got familiar with the sound we make in the house.
He now recognizes voices and footsteps and knows very well who is feeding him.
He loves to sit in my hand to fall asleep after a meal. Curled up, already trying to hide his head in his back feathers, he sleeps the sleep of the innocents.
Until the next portion of food! His yelling when hungry, gets louder and louder every day.
It is amazing how they are made to open their beak as wide as possible, folding it around the syringe.

During the day his container is in the kitchen close to the stairs and as soon as we come downstairs he sits there with his beak wide open: "Mum! Food!"
I feed him during the evening until 11 o'clock and start again between 6 and 7 in the morning.
He eats enormous amounts for such a little bird but also grows like mad.
And it is not only his size that needs food and energy to grow, but also his feathers.
He is changing day by day and becomes more funny too day by day! (Third photo.)
Does he miss his real Mum and Dead? I doubt, he acts like a little happy starling.
Within a short time he will eat and fly without help and will be released to find new friends.
But first we will have the joy for a while to watch him developing from a tiny naked bird that survived a huge fall, into a healthy, shiny grown up starling.

If he decides to stay with us like sparrow Fluffy and crow Caro (which we don't hope though, it is getting to crowdy here!), we will let you know.....

Spring, Boats, Campers and good people

Spring, a beautiful time of the year where your "blood itches" as we say in Holland.
The grass is green again, the trees blossom, the fish in the pont are back (all of them survived the winter!) and the duck is sitting on top of her eggs in the basket we put up last year.
She isn't bothered by the dogs and winks at us if we take a peep to say hello.

Living in the countryside, you do not only see Spring, you also smell it in all its facets and it feels great.

Tjep moved here from Hilversum and is enjoying every minute of his Frieslian life.
I live here since 1999 and still appreciate it tremendously.
The marvelous skies, we can see for miles and miles. Beautiful sunsets. Or as today, heavy clouds spitting rain. The wind is blowing. The garden is covered in blossom.
We keep our fingers crossed; the blossom was promising a lot of pears like last year. We'll see if they produce as much chutney, marmalade, pickled pears again.

Spring is also a good time for cleaning boats and campers and planning holidays. Our holiday was planned some while ago and soon we will be off with the camper to good old Yorkshire and beautiful Scotland.
But first we took care of our boat (for boat lovers: it is an "Oranjebloesem"). For many reasons it stayed ashore for 2 years and the first year uncovered.
We never managed to visit te boat in those two years.
The state it was in was quite a shock. Although the woodwork was taken care of, the rest of the boat was covered in a black and green substance (or what ever you may call it).

The inside was even worse, no ventilation made the ceiling drip. Brown stalactites, even the paint is hanging down!
The woodwork covered in moult. We had tears in our eyes but not for long; there was work to do!
We first cleaned the outside, this took us two days. We planned waxing on Saturday but unfortunately it was raining cats and dogs. It is now planned for next Friday.

We left on Thusrday evening because our camper, in which we stayed near the harbour, had to go for a few minor repairs and modernistations to get it ready for the big trip.
The company who is going to build in the LPG bottles (the ususal gas bottles can't be exchanged in every country and from now on we can get gas at every petrol station) is called Jasicamp (Leek - Groningen). They are also going to do the minor repairs.
Because it felt we are running out of time, I called them yesterday and received the shocking news that they could not move the camper due to a broken gearbox!! What a 'great' news with the Ferry booked, an invitation for a wedding in Edinborough and hardly any time to clean the camper!
Mr. Neef of Jasciamp understood our problem and promised to talk to his mechanics, getting back to us in half an hour.
So he did and told us that two of his mechanics don't mind doing overtime to help us out, starting tonight (Wednesday evening) and working all day Friday.
If all goes well (keep everything possible crossed!) we can collect the camper on Friday afternoon/everning.
Not only with a functional gearbox but also all other repairs and features done.

Super! There are still wonderful people! Hurray for Jasicamp!

England and Scotland, here we come.........