The rescue, or…

at least I hope it was.

It all started with a day entirely free of meetings, coffees, lunches, dinners or socialness of any kind. It was meant to be a day of catching up on office work, of sorting, of cleaning, etc. So how did it so quickly morph?

Coffee in the village was leisurely, as I had no reason to rush. Upon my return home I went straight to the neighbors to bring them up-to-date on some research that I hadn’t had time to tell them about before leaving for the weekend. After that I decided to wander around my garden and see what needed my most urgent attention…

And almost stepped on a poor baby bird that had obviously tried to fly before he/she was ready. It seemed to be fairly perky, steady on its’ feet, able to hope quite far, etc. and I was only grateful that I was able to cup it in my hands before either of the cats who were following me could get seriously interested (mind you it was close as I had to grab him/her right under Babette’s nose and paws).

Then it was into the house for a cardboard box and to search for the contact number for our local bird sanctuary. I called them and the man who answered, after my description, told me to place the bird back outside on a bush or low tree as he/she (the little bird) would call his parents and they would take care of him. I explained that I had cats and he said that I would need to keep them in the house for 2 – 3 days! 

I obeyed the instructions and put him on one of the trees close to the house as high as I could with the help of a chair. I came back into the house for my camera to take his picture outside, but by the time I got there he had already flown off and again landed in the grass under my oak trees. I kept an eye on him as he hopped further and further away: his parents did some swooping (and presumably instructions and consoling) and then I had to leave.  When I returned later in the afternoon, junior was no where to be found around my house; the cats showed no interest in any particular spot when I released them so I can only hope that the hour and a half spent rescuing the baby bird had a positive ending.

hard to get a decent picture