{"id":84,"date":"2008-06-03T18:34:40","date_gmt":"2008-06-03T16:34:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/boboh\/2008\/06\/03\/the_birds_and_the_beast\/"},"modified":"2008-06-03T18:34:40","modified_gmt":"2008-06-03T16:34:40","slug":"the_birds_and_the_beast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/boboh\/2008\/06\/03\/the_birds_and_the_beast\/","title":{"rendered":"The Birds and The Beast"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I have been remiss about updating on The Beast lately.  But he has been active &#8211; perhaps too active.<br \/>\nIt all started when Spring arrived, so I could open the balcony for him.  He could sit outside and watch the word go past.<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3022\/2549030156_14623c0ea2_m.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"240\" height=\"221\" \/><br \/>\nHe was happy with this, until The Visits started<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3141\/2548203809_7c0cab64a3_m.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"240\" height=\"145\" \/><\/p>\n<p><!--more--><br \/>\nWagtails.  A pair, presumably nesting under the roof, but as well as tending the nest, they have developed a hobby.<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3019\/2549030402_1b08f93bfb_m.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"233\" height=\"240\" \/><br \/>\nFirst, just one wagtail at a time would appear, walk up and down the railing and then fly off.  But they seem to spend more and more time doing this: now whenever the balcony door is open, there is almost always one wagtail strutting around, twitching its tail in an impudent fashion.<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3059\/2548202847_95cf3f474f_m.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"240\" height=\"171\" \/><br \/>\nThe beast, of course, sees them as food, so is keen to talk to them and persuade them that it is much nicer inside<sup><a href=\"#fn422331272502413012d8a1\">1<\/a><\/sup>.  They are reluctant to accept his offer, so we get a stand-off.  The birds stand on the rail or the door, mocking poor Jack<sup><a href=\"#fn9543095425024130517cbf\">2<\/a><\/sup>.<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3091\/2548203197_1069579d10_m.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"240\" height=\"189\" \/><br \/>\nWhilst The Beast sits on the balcony, willing them to come closer.<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3165\/2548203553_d65f60376d_m.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"180\" height=\"240\" \/><br \/>\nThis weekend the wagtails upped the ante.  Both appeared to mock the poor Beast together.  He was not amused.<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3096\/2549029110_761691a5b6_m.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"186\" height=\"240\" \/><br \/>\nThe Beast is of course unable to keep this level of activity up, but then he doesn&#8217;t need to.  He can wait.<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3268\/2548203079_c35338ea0e_m.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"240\" height=\"180\" \/><br \/>\nYes, The Beast is patient.<\/p>\n<p class=\"footnote\"><sup>1<\/sup> Inside a beast, I think he means.<\/p>\n<p class=\"footnote\"><sup>2<\/sup> It sounds like an episode of Rhubarb (and Custard).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I have been remiss about updating on The Beast lately. But he has been active &#8211; perhaps too active. It all started when Spring arrived, so I could open the balcony for him. He could sit outside and watch the &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/boboh\/2008\/06\/03\/the_birds_and_the_beast\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-84","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/boboh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/boboh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/boboh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/boboh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/boboh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/boboh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/boboh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/boboh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/boboh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}