Yesterday late afternoon I was in my studio working when all of a sudden a bird hit the window. I didn't actually see it but the impact was quite loud so I knew it had to be a bigger bird. The same thing happened last week to a sparrow but by the time I got outside to take a look my cat had grabbed his dinner which always makes me feel sad but so goes human nature. Anyway, I left was I was doing and ran outside to find this guy looking pretty out of it. I wondered if he was alive for just a moment and then saw his chest and realized he was breathing. My oldest daugher came outside also and we sat on either side of him just in case Simba was prowling around looking for another free meal.It was just about the coolest experience to be that close to such an amazing bird. I felt a little bit in awe of him and stunned myself that I could get this close. I was desperately hoping that his wing wasn't broken because then I'd have no idea what needed to be done and would probably start crying because....well, just because I'm emotional like that but lo and behold after 10 long mins. he turned his head and looked directly at me, turned his head and looked at my daughter, shook himself off, took a couple of steps and flew away.
Even though it was just a small moment in time it continued to stay with me for the reminder of the night. There was something about the light at that time of day, something about that brief moment that Sierah and I shared being guardians to this helpless bird, something about being kind and something about doing right...............
3 comments:
Flickers are my all-time favourite bird and we have quite the family of them living here. They have been ravenously eating ants out of the grass for the past few weeks -- much to Coco's delight. I love their call. Yours is different, though, and after a little image search I can see that you get the Common Flicker there whereas we have the Northern Flicker here.
So glad it was OK. We have the same experience here often in winter. Last winter it was a different kind of woodpecker two days in a row!
On further research I see that they're both Nortehrn Flickers but yours is the yellow-shafted variety while ours is the red-shafted. I love it when they lift off and flash their colourful underfeathers!
Andrea, thanks so much for all the research. I wasn't even sure when I first saw it what type of bird it was. Your terrific!
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