For The Birds

For The Birds is a Mr. Conductor's Thomas Tales episode.

Plot
Inside Shining Time Station, an agitated Mr. Conductor is telling the goldfish about the previous night's windstorm damaging the Early Birds' nest. Mr. Conductor desperately wants to help them, but doesn't know how. The goldfish suggests organizing the other birds to stage a benefit concert, and asking Skylark to sing in it. Mr. Conductor is very reluctant to do so and remarks that Skylark reminds him of Sir Handel because he is so stuck up. To illustrate the point, he proceeds to tell the story about Sir Handel's first day on the Island of Sodor.

The plot resumes with Mr. Conductor pretending to call Mrs. Skylark, only to have her abruptly hang up on him. A miffed Mr. Conductor says that someday Skylark will learn her lesson just as Sir Handel did when he met George the steam roller, and tells the tale to explain.

Afterward in the arcade, Mr. Conductor admits that Skylark didn't really hang up on him as he was only pretending to call her. Intimidated to call her for real, he instead suggests asking "Old Brown" the owl to perform his "Who" song, as it is always a hit with the audience. He even comes up with a title for the benefit event: "The Who - Live in Concert." The goldfish infer that Old Brown is too advanced in years to perform, to which Mr. Conductor disagrees by reminding the goldfish of how "old" Edward once saved James from a dangerous situation.

After the story, Mr. Conductor is at the ticket counter telling the goldfish that he tried phoning Old Brown, but had to leave a message on his answering machine since the owl sleeps all day. Doubting that Old Brown would show up anyway, he wonders about asking Cuckoo, but changes his mind after stating that he's as cheeky as Thomas the Tank Engine, and proceeds to tell the story of how cheekiness got both Thomas and Percy into trouble.

On the station windowsill, Mr. Conductor informs the goldfish that he's ruled out any help from Skylark, Old Brown and Cuckoo. The goldfish tell him to ask Blue Jay, but Mr. C. considers the bird to be the neighborhood bully and as mean as the Diesel. He offers to call him anyway as he tells the story of the Diesel and his encounter with a bowler hat.

Finally, Mr. Conductor takes a walk with the goldfish bowl in the wooded park. Hearing many birds in song, it turns out that everyone Mr. Conductor asked came to help the Early Birds. He remarks that they are truly "fine-feathered friends" and that there's a lesson in this, though he can't think of what it is. It suddenly comes back to him when he remembers the Thomas song, "Don't Judge a Book by its Cover."

Stories

 * 1) A Bad Day for Sir Handel
 * 2) Steam Roller
 * 3) Old Iron
 * 4) Double Trouble
 * 5) Bowled Out

Song

 * Don't Judge a Book By its Cover

Goofs
None

Trivia
None