Thanks, Clive. You're a gent!

They were statuesque birds (I sometimes had to 'rescue' frightened passers-by from them), yet also wonderfully comical; unfortunately, our local foxes developed a taste for them (they were free-ranging birds, of course), so I reluctantly had to give up keeping them

Domesticated - Norfolk Bronzes. They weren't the brightest birds (unlike their wily wild counterparts, which I have seen in the Appalachians) but they weren't stupid. They followed me around, and liked gardening, when they would stand nearby hoping for beetles and spiders. Good guard-animals too!

I used to keep turkeys as pets - very likeable (and strictly inedible!) animals

Fantastic birds. By chance, yesterday I discovered the first appearance of 'goosander' in the language was in a 1611-1622 topographical poem called Poly-Olbion, by a now largely neglected poet called Michael Drayton

Good luck! I began writing a dystopia set in or around the 2070s, but got distracted, and now it sits reproachfully in my 'Books' folder - a great and shapeless lump of circa 100,000 words...

Hello back! I have not yet given much attention to this, because bogged down in the 17th century (although there are worse places to be). But very good to see some familiar faces

A too much taken-for-granted bird in characteristically perky mode