dorishaslop

I've noticed this week on my walks around the town and country that a lot of the Spanish people like to keep birds in cages on their balconies. I have seen budgies, parrots, canaries, and even some that look like quail. I must admit although I don't agree with having beasies in cages, especially small cages, that the sound of birdsong in the streets is pleasant to hear. and I suppose that at least they are getting some fresh air and visual stimulation which is more than a lot of budgies etc. get in Britain.

Lynn R

Where I live, they even have competitions for songbirds! We happened across one in the local park one Sunday morning and wondered what on earth was going on. The owners took their birds along in cages with covers over them. Three judges sat solemnly behind a table, with a stand several feet away. Each owner in turn placed their bird's cage on the stand, took the cover off, the bird then did it's "turn" and the cage was recovered for the next one to take it's place. Lord knows what criteria they use for judging them by - it was like "Spain's Got Talent" for canaries

The Beast

I think you will find that the 'hypothesis' amongst the people in the trade and competitive fraternity, which is global, is that they are screaming to be released!

rachelk

A nice bar I used to go to often in Grananda had a couple of birds outside in a cage. I liked seeing them, but I felt a bit sad for them being caged up. That until I realised how many hungry cats there were prowling the area. Safer in a cage

fionamw

One of my neighbours has the usual large warehouse-style garage attached to his house, which has the freezer, bikes, chairs for outside mosto-drinking sessions, bean-shelling etc........... plus cages for his quails. Don't much like seeing that. However he goes one better. The walls/ceiling are crawling with harvested snails waiting til there are enough to use (or there's an R in the month or whatever) !!

dorishaslop

we had a paella contest here on Mayday, lots of them had snails in, I did wonder if they were actually dead when they were thrown in...
and my friend told me that with the quails, the smaller the cage the better they sing, don't know about that, didn't know that quails sung

fionamw

I didn't know geckos chirruped til I lived in Spain!

Horrid thought, though - cut down the space and they sing better

dorishaslop

I didn't know about a lot of critters till I visited here, I got bit/stung the first day I got here, don't know what it was but it's bite/sting is still in there... it's not painful just a big bruise with a black dot in the middle, hurts when I rub it though... I don't want to go to docs or hospital, will visit mine when I get back next week. can't help thinking about that discovery programme though, monsters inside me lol

Domino

one of my local bars the owner breeds small birds, each has its own cage and carry bag made to suit.

it is even more common out the Far East where you will see hundreds hanging on the verandahs and windows of tower blocks.

I am not sure I agree with keeping a living creature in a small cage where it cannot stretch its wings, but must shut up because the BH will be round in a minute to cover me up and protect me from the sun

bricwood

They used to hold singing competitions in the pubs near club row in London years ago, people would go along with a canary or finch and they would be judged by the singing, there were terms for the notes and trills, they were kept in tiny boxes just big enough, one of my dads mates could catch song birds by just watching them enter a hedge and move twigs around, seemed a bit wicked to me, my dads mate also kept ferrets and a whippet, I don't suppose people like that exist in the east end today

Lynn R

What, you mean that wasn't confined to us from oop North after all???? You'll be telling me next that Londoners kept their coal in the bath as well.

bricwood

Well when they moved cockneys to Dagenham some did keep coal in the bath I was told by my mum, they also raced pigeons in a big way , Dagenham also known as corn beef city, I remember when I was a kid they moved problem families from Dagenham to my street one family kept coal in the front garden one family put a bike shed in the front garden and the kids used to climb out of the windows

Lynn R

Well I never, so the North/South divide was a myth after all!!!! We always had plenty of coal as my Dad worked at the pit so got concessionary coal, but unfortunately no bath to put it in!

Dick Dasterdly

So I presume you had an old tin bath in front of the fire, as they had in my village.
I recall the miners families coming home from pit completely black with coal dust with only the whites of their eyes still showing.
(No luxuries of pithead baths and showers back then.)
Then they took turns in the old tin bath in front of the living room fire, eldest having priority.
By the time the last one got out the bath was half full of coal dust and it was hard to tell if they'd even had a bath at all.

Just an afterthought. but with regard to the miners I suppose the thread could now go full circle as they used to use caged birds to detect gas down in the coalmines.

Lynn R

Some of the neighbours did have a tin bath hanging on a nail in their back yards, but we went to my grandparents' house for a bath (once a week - luxury!) and the rest of the time it was a stand-up wash at the kitchen sink, with an appalling thing called a geyser to heat the water. I was terrified of lighting it as it made a loud noise and I always thought it was going to blow up. I have vague childhood memories of miners coming home with their faces all black in the days before pithead baths, but my Dad worked on the surface so he wasn't quite that dirty. My sister and I went down the mine he worked at once, on a visit, and although we were only there a couple of hours I was coughing up coaldust and finding it in my hanky for weeks afterwards. The Deputy who escorted us around warned the miners over the tannoy to watch their language as there were young ladies present - sweet! We had half a dozen university students with us and they kept asking daft questions like where were the toilets, and why the miners kept their snap tins (lunch boxes) tied up from the roof props on bits of string.

Yes that's right about the canaries down the mines, if a canary fell off it's perch and became an ex-canary, they knew to get out quick.