Bird-brained

Here's something odd. If one of your gran's has ever had a canary or budgie (isn't it funny how certain types of pets fall out of fashion - do you know anyone under 70 who's got a bird in a cage?), you'll be familiar with the idea of a bird bath.

The bird gets in the tub, hunkers down, spreads it's wings, and shimmies. All very entertaining for a 9-year old, I'm sure.

Well, there was me (I'm getting to the point here) standing on Partick station platform the other day, and I spot this bird (easy boys... of the feathered variety.. and no I don't mean a feathered boa). It was a big bird (no, not THAT big bird)... a rook, raven, or something all in black. The sort of thing Death would have on his shoulder. And it was doing the whole hunkerdown-spread-shimmy routine (OK, so Death's bird obviously wouldn't do that as it wouldn't be cool).

But .. and here's the bizarre bit... the day was in the middle of that mini-heatwave, so no water was lying around from recent rainfall.

So, thought I, what the heck was the bird doing?

Turns out that it had found a near-empty can of special brew or similar, rolled it along the ground a bit until the whole was nearest the ground, and some beer fell out. The bird then did the shimmying thing. Then it rolled the can some more to get the next bit of beer, and shimmied in that new puddle. And again. And again, until it rolled the can off the edge of the platform.

[At that point I moved upstream, so to speak, so that said can wouldn't fly up and decapitate me when the next non-stopping train shot through at 100mph].

Clever bird eh?

posted by Blakey UK @ 10:33 pm