'I'm always looking for the Hows and the Whys and the Whats,' said Muskrat, 'That is why I speak as I do. You've heard of Muskrat's Much-in-Little, of course?'
'No,' said the child. 'What is it?'
- The Mouse and his Child. Russell Hoban.

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Saturday, 2 May 2015

A Bird on a Stump

I placed it there from where it lay, gasping, under the window. Luckily the cat is too sleepy in the sun in the office to have seen it while it was vulnerable.
Just checked again, and the bird has flown.





9 comments:

  1. Poor little thing... it happens so often; our faults I suppose.

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  2. In NZ I've heard them many times but seen them few times and photographed one once. The Yellowhammer or Yellow Hammerhead is a most elusive bird to me.I'm glad that you saved him/her.

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    1. I rarely even see them Geeb, so, it was neat to see one up close.

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  3. It probably knocked itself out on your window. This happens rarely on our own suburban windows but I have seen this happen a lot at schools I taught at. Quite often at my last school birds knocked themselves out trying to fly into the classroom through the windows. Also I often had to get small birds out of the classroom that had flown in through an open door. The only reason I can think of is that if the children had their lunches inside on wet days there were a lot of breadcrumbs to attract the birds, so perhaps the birds got into the habit of coming inside - as I have seen them do from time to time in cafes, or anywhere else where there is food.
    I am glad the little thing woke up - hope it found his bearings and flew away.

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    1. Indeed, Alden. I don't know about schoolrooms, but with the exception of open cafes and supermarkets, which sparrows seem to negotiate readily, there's really only fantails, which I notice frequently come inside intentionally after my spiders, and, due to their ability to fly slowly and navigate enclosed bush spaces, are usually perfectly able to remember the way out again. I thought birds that bang into windows do it because they thought the window was sky.

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  4. That is an interesting point about the birds thinking the window was sky (maybe they see the sky reflected in the glass). I do remember a couple of times (of great class distraction) when a small bird continually jumped up and down on the outside window ledge flapping its wings furiously as it tried to get into the room - intriguing but birds do have bird brains.

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    1. Ah, That may have been the bird seeing its own reflection and, thinking it was another, defending its territory. I have seen the marks of a male blackbird (beak spit) that repeatedly and vigorously attacked every window of my sister's rental house over the course of three surreal days.

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  5. Ha - maybe this is where Alfred Hitchcock got his inspiration for "The Birds" - that, and maybe being dive bombed by magpies - now that's an experience I don't want to repeat.

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