The Twelve Days of What-the-heck-day-is-it?

 Ho ho ho and a chickadeedeedee!

Cellphone pic, but the bushtits are cute at any resolution!

Merry Christmas! It's only just started: We got a whole twelve days of birdies, so buckle up!. 

There's a meme going around that the song Twelve Days of Christmas (18th Century England, originally) is actually all about birds. This is controversial. Golden rings could be referring to pheasants... but it seems the general consensus is that this is unlikely and in the "I was this years old when I realize 'tag" meant 'touch and release'" (it doesn't) category of internet lore.

 But - leaving out the milk maids and leaping lords - it does involve a lot of birds regardless! So that's something! Messy, mostly! Do you know how often each individual bird poops? 

As the meme goes, that many waterfowl isn't love, it's an act of war!

But crows? Poor babies will just have to hang out in the rain and scrap for peanuts!

While looking gorgeous, mysterious and just a little film noir femme fatale!

She's got secrets I tell you. 

They've all got secrets. Mostly about where they hid their cache of treats, but they don't want to share with anyone. 

Especially not this little bugger. 

Though even crows get a little Christmas treat! Somebody threw out a ton of ramen in a very vulnerable bag in the back alley!

It's been a pretty hot subject of alley shenanigans for the last couple of days! Gull and crow are pretty good at getting the solid block of noodle out of the package. Then the hammering begins. So many people are going to find ramen in their gutters (popular place to cache) some time down the road!

The crows have been in higher numbers than typical again. I can only guess that the kiddos are home for the holidays!

But speaking of amazing meals... 

In case you were wondering if there were fish in that body of water:

Seems there are fairly large ones, in fact. 

Somebody's abandoned goldfish was caught by a female hooded merganser (the lady with the bad ass Tina Turner stylings and the gigantic ass goldie hanging out of her mouth).  

Not sure Ms. Merganser knew entirely what to do with it once she had it, but I'm assuming she eventually managed to get it down. 

Fish is great for Mergansers with their deep diving abilities and serrated bills. Greens and plant life is better for wigeons and other dabbling ducks. 

Bread is apparently crack for wigeons. 

*Note: you should not feed bread to most wildlife but especially not the ducks* Regularly feeding ducks bread can cause health impacts, including malnourishment, obesity (ok a fat duck sounds adorable, but health issues and all), and something called "Angel wing," which is where their feathers grow all weird and they can't fly anymore). Additionally uneaten bread decomposes in the water and causes algae blooms and increased bacteria, which contaminates the pond itself. 

Everything in moderation, really. But some foods are still better than others... 

Anyways, I'm not really vigilant about this. So, when a random lady shows up with a bag of bread that she throws around the park (right in front of the Do Not Feed Wildlife sign), I didn't complain, given my giant purse of peanuts. 

Anyways, the crows are very organized about their bread feeding. They took turns, grabbed some chunks, and individually flew off to stash them somewhere. They later showed up waiting for peanuts again, despite there being more bread on the shore.

The wigeons, though... 

Seems the one female wigeon (black smokey eyes and head) was starting trouble with the male wigeon (kind of a luchador white head with green). And it escalated. 

Others got involved. 

Nobody was safe. Everyone wanted that bread. 

It happened several times over where the bread was decomposing into algae blooms!

Basically, giving bread to wigeons seems to be like dumping a giant pile of candy in the sharing circle at a daycare. ANARCHY!!!!

To my knowledge they all survived

Speaking of sweets... 

I think we're ready for our Pastry Competition Showcase Holiday Edition reality show premier! 

The Christmas week went well, birds aside. 

Well... sort of. There were a lot of bird themes woven in there. 

And... 

And staring off with a giant candy/sticker hunt involving tons of bird stickers of course!

Ending with bird themed clothing, books and adorable as crazy plushies!

I got up somewhere around 5 a.m. to get everything set up. Then helped in the hunt. Set up the bird feeder in between. Made breakfast. Got into the presents...  well, into the afternoon before officially crashing. 

I am happy to say the house is as clean as it was before (not much, really, but no additional packaging detritus). And everyone had a good time for as long as that was emotionally feasible.  

And I'm spent, as is Allan I'm pretty sure. 

I swear, bringing "the magic" is no joke! And I know to some extent I don't have to carve off a year or two of my life force to make Christmas magic, but it feels meaningful to me. I guess in many ways because I don't get to bring "the fun" as often as the primary "safe" background default parent. 

But I'm happy. Happy it happened. Happy it's done. 

More than ready to get back to our regular rhythms (one more week of general anarchy!)

Not really sure about 2026, but she what the heck? 

Happy Holidaze! Hope y'all are recovering plentifully and enjoying all the prezzies and sweets still lingering about!