I must say, I am so not a fan of Daniel whumping. I don't hate it; it just doesn't do much for me.

Despite this, I really enjoyed this story (that's high praise). The characterizations were awesome - I love early team fic - and I liked the mystery of what had happened to Daniel, what the birds were about, etc.

Also, I haven't read or thought about SG1 in a really long time, and this brought it all right back in a big way, which I was not expecting. Kudos to you! :)