Stories of letting Little B free

There were three previous times I had let Little B outside, thinking it might want to be free. First time a month ago, I had to coax Little B out of the open cage outside, and even then it wouldn't go further than a couple of metres and kept flying back onto my shoulder. The second time it spent a while in a small tree, but eventually it got all clumsy and once on the ground, it kept trying but couldn't fly back up into the tree and clung instead to my skirt.

The third time, it went back into the small tree, and then out of nowhere a New Holland Honeyeater bombarded it like a fighter jet and fought Little B to the ground! Before I could grab Little B, Little B flew way up high and continued to be tackled and pecked by this tiny New Holland Honeyeater. I managed to catch Little B again after it got exhausted, and it was hanging UPSIDE DOWN!, on a low branch. I realised Little B was still small, and if you might or might not have noticed, Little B has a permanently crooked tail. The tail feathers are bent at a right angle so Little B's tail looks like a letter "L", it must have been damaged when it fell from the nest. I don't think it effects Little B's flight, but seeing it get attacked made me wonder if Little B had a disadvantage. And I started thinking I might keep Little B for good.

Last week, Little B had been doing super-speed laps round and round the room, so one morning I let it down the hallway and opened the back laundry door to see if it wanted to fly away. I left the door open for a good 15 minutes but it just sat on top of the door and was content to fly back into the room.

So I then decided to keep Little B for good. I chanced upon someone else, some twins from down South in W.A. who recently qualified as vet nurses (big ups to them, I've heard how vet nurses are one of the most underpaid and overworked jobs), who also rescued a Singing Honeyeater "Phil", that had fallen out of it's nest on new years 2008.

They told me that female honeyeaters will lay an egg after a year, so if it doesn't, it's a male. Finally! a sure way to tell if Little B is a boy or a girl. I just have to wait a year.

But now I won't get to know!