Oh, how I am regretting the loss of a photo op.
My good friend Kris Rowley came over yesterday to give a new home to a small, not thriving peegee hydrangea that I've been nursing along for a couple of years but really don't like. It's probably failing to thrive because it's too wet there, but also maybe because I don't pay much attention to it.
Be that as it may, it IS baby bird season, and as we were walking past the flower bed in front of the house, Kris exclaimed "You have a bird on your leg!" This was a great surprise, and it was hard to find the bird because it was toward the back of my (jeans-covered) leg. A baby chickadee. Hopping up my leg. Quickly and with some determination. (What will I do if it heads for my face or my head???).
Chickadees are not that big, and this was a cute and truly tiny bird. Kris was trying valiantly to get her phone out of her pocket, and on, and ready to take a picture. The bird had moved around my leg was on the front of the leg, about mid-thigh (perfect for a camera shot) but Kris couldn't get it framed properly. I must have moved a little because baby birdie flew off (not the strongest flier I've ever seen), fell into the ferns, ascended to the rough concrete foundation on the north side of the house (visualize a chickadee-sized climbing wall) and then flew to the birch tree, where it hid in the leaves.
I've never had a bird light on me before!! What a picture that would have been! That, and a picture of the look on Kris's face.
Earlier I'd been out in the yarn, doing some plant rearranging in between the rain showers, and I heard a loud "thwock" near the front door. Looked around, saw nothing. Heard it again, looked, and saw either Mama or Dad robin flying back to the fence. I had put the plexiglass back into the storm door so I could take more bird pix when the time comes. Behind the storm door is the house door with its glass window.
Clearly, the robin had seen its own reflection in the doorway, very close to the nest, and had attacked this "interloper". I opened the inside door and that has made the threat go away. Mama is still sitting, more quietly this time.
I think I met one of your little bird's relatives last weekend. It got into the house, where two cats thought, "What a great toy!" But it hid behind the large dog crate in my room. I brought a cat crate in, hoping he would fly in there. Instead, after a half hour, he tried the window again, ending up clutching some old bottles on what we shall laughingly call my window sill. I was able to persuade him to try the cat crate, where he hung on to the door for dear life. (Happily, Cetty doesn't leap and bound any more, but she remains interested.) I think it was a mountain chickadee, and he must have been a baby! I took the crate outside, where he hung on for quite a while longer until he decided it was safe to fly home. I wish I'd had a camera handy, too, but the battery was charging.
ReplyDelete