Cause for Optimism.

OK, so let’s get away from damn politicians and the ills of society, and tell the story of a poorly little bird.

I heard a loud bang on one of the office windows, and went out to find a newly fledged bird lying on its side, apparently hyperventilating and unable to right itself. I brought it into the house and bathed its head with cold water, and then took it the greenhouse where it would be safe from the neighbour’s cats, hoping it would make a full recovery. I’ve done that before and it’s worked.

A little while later I went to check and it had gone. Cause for rejoicing, I thought, but it was a premature thought. I needed to go into the greenhouse again about and hour later and there was the fledgling, still struggling to stand upright and only able to fly a foot or two. I put it in a safe position on one of the strawberry pots, along with some water and food.

After another hour or so, I looked in on it again. It had come down from the strawberry pot and was on the greenhouse floor, but it was in no better condition and I began to think that this little guy wasn’t going to make it. I decided that the only thing to do was keep it warm in there overnight and hope it would recover after a night’s rest. I’m not keen on keeping birds in the house because I did that with a guillemot once and it died in a flurry of trying to get out.

But then, to my great surprise, I saw it fly away from the greenhouse and around to the path at the front of the property. That was encouraging because it meant that the invalid must have flown from the ground to the open window, and then made it some way around to the front of the house. But it was grounded again, and the front of the house is regularly patrolled by the cats. I decided it should go back into the greenhouse for safety.

Birdie had other ideas. As I approached, it took off and flew a good forty feet across the garden and into the branches of a tree. So that was my duty done and hence the title of the post.

And imagine the little guy’s excitement when he meets up with his parents and has such a tale to tell.

‘Hey, I just had this huge adventure. I flew into something and knocked myself out, and when I came to, there was this huge god creature who picked me up and carried me into this huge building that was very light. And he put me onto this bed where there were some huge red things that smelt nice, and I kept trying to get away, but he kept putting me back. But then I got strong again, and I escaped! I did!’

And so his parents will take him to a bird psychiatrist who will explain that the whole god episode was due entirely to a chemical reaction in the brain following the shock, and that was what produced the delusion so there’s nothing to worry about.