Fairy Tale Endings

Posted by rockcat on September 1, 2008

The kids and I went for a walk, with Ember and Tana (the dogs – Tana is a bird dog, which is important today). As we were going around the pond David spotted a bird. It took me a while to locate it and I didn’t like what I saw. The bird appeared to be stuck to the tree.

It was a pretty bird – small like a sparrow, with a yellow underside and grey on top, both dull in collar rather than brilliant. It’s beak was dark and straight, with black eyes. I still haven’t figured out what kind it was, but possibly a warbler, flycatcher or kingbird.

I got closer (remember I’m 5′2″ and the bird is probably 7′ or 8′ up in the tree) and figured out it was wrapped in some fishing line. And had a fish hook in its beak. My heart sank, I didn’t know what to do (we don’t own a ladder, there was no one to help), so we continued our walk. It was threatening to rain so we made it a short walk. On the way home we passed the bird, and I saw it was still alive, but not struggling as much. I called Kevin, mainly to see if he corroborated my worries about handling wild animals. He suggested breaking the branch off, so I tied up Tana (Ember was off-leash).

I found that a vine was wrapped around the bird’s branch, so I bent it down carefully. I was pretty worried about catapulting the bird. I managed to get hold of the branch itself finally, and broke it above where the bird was.

So now I have a twig with a live bird attached to it. Tana (bird dog) finally notices the bird. I have no box to bring it home, and I can’t carry it, push a stroller and hold onto the bird dog’s leash at the same time.

One of the bird’s feet is wrapped in fishing line and stuck to the branch, so I break the branch away, being careful to hold onto the line so the bird can’t fly away. The hook goes through the bird’s nostril (whatever the proper term is) and down his beak. I took my sweater off and wrapped it around the bird. Its so tiny.

Miraculously the hook comes out very easily. I didn’t know what shape the bird was in, so I carried it to a high-ish branch of driftwood, set it down and unwrapped my sweater. It immediately flew about 20 feet to perch on a tree branch.

I hope that the bird lives happily ever after, but even if it does not, at least it won’t die caught in a tree by an invisible string. Seeing a living, wild animal that close is a humbling experience. Realizing how intricately God made them. True beauty.