Do you remember this picture that I teased:

I had asked if you could figure out what it was that Jay was making for me. I know, it could be anything! Here’s another clue… I sprayed it with waterproofing deck spray:

I wish that I could show you another picture of the finished product, but technically it’s not fully finished. You see, it’s a bird bath! A very extravagant bird bath. Here’s the story behind it…

This is our current bird bath:

It’s not very large, but it gets a lot of use! Well, on July 4th we were having quite a hot and humid day. As I walked through the living room I looked out and noticed a mourning dove LOUNGING in this bird bath. He took up about a quarter of it. The sparrows were a bit upset because they couldn’t enjoy the water with him hogging up the space.

I told Jay that we needed a multi-tiered bird bath so that more than just a handful of birds could enjoy it at one time. I came up with the three tiers, each one being a different depth for the different sizes of birds.

You can see the holes where Jay is going to put the copper tubing that will allow the water to spill from one tier to another. This water movement will be aided by a pump (which is one of the pieces we are waiting for) so that the water will be constantly moving and tempt the birds to enjoy it.

I even had Jay add a little door where I will be able to easily access the lines so that I can quickly drain it when I have to clean it.

I bought some garden pond liner to line it as I was worried about using any other kind of vinyl liner that wasn’t animal friendly. The last thing that I want is to be responsible for the death of every mourning dove within a six block radius!

To get it out of our way we have moved it outside, though not in its permanent location, and I’ve been keeping it filled with clean water. As I was looking out at the birds two weeks ago I caught sight of something under the feeders. It was a bright blue bird! I couldn’t quickly call to mind a brightly-colored bird that would be in this region. And then I got a closer look…

One of these things is not like the others… and I’m not talking about the squirrel.

Do you see it there between the mourning doves? Can you tell what it is? Let me give you a different angle…

It’s a stinkin’ parakeet! (Just one, though… not sure why they call them a Pair of Keets…)

I have no idea where it came from and I haven’t seen it since, but he was having the time of his life with all of that seed out there. When Jay got home from work I showed him the pictures. In his swinging bachelor days Jay had a cockatiel so he wouldn’t mind having another bird. This was the conversation that we had:

“Why didn’t you catch it?!” Jay asked.

“What am I supposed to do with a parakeet if I catch it??”

“You put it in a cage,” he answered as if that should have been obvious.

Pointing at Chester and Bob, “That would just be a very large Chinese Puzzle box to these two.” Can you imagine what they would do to a bird in a cage??

I told Jay that if he could catch it then he could keep it. We haven’t seen it since so I’m hoping it flew back to where it came from as he definitely won’t make it living in the wild once winter hits. He’s more of a warm weather bird, so our freezing cold and snow won’t be good for his health.

I think it’s going to be a long while before I find anything as shocking under my bird feeders!