the faces change but the bodycount keeps growing...

...am gaining little birds as fast as I ship them through to the centre. The nicest thing though was seeing 'my' red-winged starling on the last couple of shifts I worked. He's been released at the centre, which is probably a good thing given his uncouth behaviour - he flies into the clinic frequently and bounces around helping himself to whatever takes his fancy...syringes, food, a comfortable place to sleep...
On Tuesday I was feeding mealworms to an assortment of babies, and he stood next to me on the table so that he could be included on a 'one-for-them-one-for-me' basis, and if the baby concerned was too slow to grab his worm, the starling had no compunction about snatching it from my fingers! I think I raised a monster...

Saw lots of the dude in the past two weeks, but am currently having a holiday drought, and missing him greatly. Guess that is the downside of this relationship, that at the times I most want to be with him he just won't be around. Missing him, and having my entire immediate family away as well has made this the most miserable Christmas ever. When I was living in Israel I spent Christmas on my own in Nazareth one year, and I thought that was as bad as it could be. This one is worse.