Your favorite bird has the same name as me - Gus. Great article, very informative. Love to see the joy you take from being their friend. Do you still feed them hotdogs? If so, how many per week do you give them? Do you buy special hot dogs for them - like Nathan's. Don't they deserve the very best? Keep up the good work. Always love reading your site. Captain Gus.
I'm so glad to hear from another Gus. Thank you for the nice compliments regarding the article. I appreciate that.
As for the feeding, I did stop a few weeks ago. It's quite expensive, and they don't really need the food this time of the year. As for the type I buy, the least expensive chicken dogs sold is fine for the birds. Nathan's is for people, not birds!
As an aside, I do check the waters every day. When water is healthy, there is a lot of fish fry activity. There will be schools of fish in various sizes swimming around. The pelicans will be plump. When times are tough, the birds that feed on fish get thinner. Should that happen, I might buy more hotdogs again.
Now don't think the birds are going hungry. The fellows in houses adjacent all buy frozen fish and chop them into chunks. They defrost and feed the birds fish. Honestly, these birds are not suffering.
The birds, Gus and his girl, do still hang out. He is on my dinghy davit at present. She's sitting on the eggs. I'm a safe spot for them.
Feeding though can rapidly get costly. It's about a dollar for a 12 ounce package of hot dogs. Without much effort I could feed them one package a day. Actually, they'd be willing to eat more than that -- FAR MORE!
If I began feeding again, Isis would return. She has stopped visiting. Ella doesn't hang out much either. Nevermore and Ready do make noise for me, though they are not nearly the frequent visitors they were in the past.
So that's life here aboard Seaweed. Thank you Cap'n Gus for your nice note. I appreciate that. Happy birding and boating to you. J.
Loved this vignette, Janice! I learn some things and enjoyed learning about Buddy and Gus. They seem like good people. I'm glad that they happened upon you and hang out with you some. Hotdogs never hurt in that respect. :)
True enough. Those hotdogs are the secret to my success. One of the fellows on the canal buys them frozen bait fish and cuts it into cubes, defrosts and feeds them. The birds do quite well.
I am pleased that they trust me. The next article is a guest post, about dogs. Then I'll be back to boats. I've been busy.
This week though my top priority is to renew my passport. It expires this coming week. I've got to get it renewed prior to that happening. In all that spare time of mine...!
Hoping your summer is warm and breezy, your friend, J.