3,333

If three thousand, three hundred and thirty three is the answer, what was the question?

I remember as a youngster looking at our canary and asking my parent "How many feathers does it have?" and that was her answer. Now, whether that was the true answer of just her guess at it, or her answer to stop me asking more questions, I don`t know.

But, having just had our newest canary go through his first moult, I seem to think she might have been right! There have been feathers flying for weeks. From the large long wing and tail feathers (yes, he looked quite cute even without a tail for a few days until it quickly grew again) to cute tiny soft curly ones. As soon as I`d hoovered them up, there were more on the carpet. And, ofcourse he stopped singing while he was moulting. And it has gone on for weeks.

Now, yesterday evening, after having a flap of wings and little fly round in his cage, he started tweeting in a different tone, as if finding his voice, and then started to give a few little trills. I was thrilled to hear that again, I`d begun to think he wasn`t going to sing again. Hopefully now he`ll soon be back to full song - a beautiful sound.

What wonderful creatures birds are.