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June 24, 2008
Birdy quest: escape from Leonard
It was 7:45 a.m. We walked into Leonard Hall, taking the stairs like we always do from the ground floor all the way up to our classroom. The brown double doors were propped open to greet the cool morning and aerate the stuffy stairwells.
Kayla, my roommate, walked ahead of me. I walked slower, trying to put my phone on vibrate and get my keys into my purse.
"Aw, Karissa, there's a bird..." Kayla said, pointing.
I looked up from the landing and saw a brown ball of feathers repeatedly smash itself into a window. "Hm, I guess he thinks he can get out this way. I wish this window opened." I climbed up to where the bird was and thought for a minute about what I could use to help usher the bird outdoors. The bird continued his quest to get through the window. "How can we get him out?" I rummaged through my bookbag and pulled out my umbrella. I extended it, but left it wrapped tightly and snapped closed.
I was hesitant to do it, but I poked the bird away from the window. He scurried back. I poked him again, and he fell over, prone, little birdy feet tucked in close to his body.
Kayla and I looked at each other. There was no way he was dead. I was using a blunt object with minimal force... so I poked him again. He flopped down one stair after another. When we reached the landing, I knew he was playing dead.
"It must be his defense mechanism or something," I said. At this point, the bird hopped up to his feet and began ascending the stairs.
"Nooo!" we both wailed.
"Birdy, go back down! You can't get out this way." Kayla said. We both blocked him from the window.
"Yeah," I said," can't you hear your friends? They're down there!" I began poking him with my umbrella again, and he played dead again. Down, down, down the stairs. At the landing, I slid him along the linoleum floor into the sunlight from the open door, thinking he would see or hear the outdoors and flee. No luck.
"Go, bird!" Kayla said. "Go outside! Go!" Kayla had joined me on the lower landing. I had tried pretending to chase the bird, thinking--again, incorrectly--that the bird would flee. And the bird continued to play dead.
I started laughing at this point, realizing what I had just done. We were yelling at a bird. I had just poked it down a flight of stairs--twice. The bird was most likely terrified and really just wanted us to leave so it could pound through that window. Our class started in less than ten minutes, but our bird friend would probably kill himself on the window if we abandoned him now.
I did the only thing I could think of:I pushed that bird down the stairs with my umbrella. When he plopped to the ground floor, he got to his feet. He seemed kind of dazed (I guess anyone would be, having been escorted down several stairs by an umbrella).
"Go, birdy!" I yelled.
And our birdy left. He hopped towards the door with nary a backwards glance to his rescuers. We watched him fly away... I wondered what he would tell his friends.
Kayla and I finally got to our classroom and got settled. Some of our classmates were there already, and they greeted us.
"Guess what?" I asked. "We just rescued a bird!"
Kayla and I told our story and it turns out that our friends were grateful because they felt bad but didn't know what to do for the poor little bird.
"We were scared he'd kill himself on the window," Kayla said.
"Yeah, so I pushed him down the stairs with my umbrella," I said. I still couldn't say it with a straight face.
Posted by KarissaKilgore at June 24, 2008 4:44 PM
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Comments
hey Karissa,
good thing you didn't touch the bird, you might have caught the avian flu [who knows where that bird has been? j/k ;) ]...
maybe the bird you and your friend found was a baby bird...they're more trusting... a while back, my dad discovered a nest in the short tree in his garden and the baby robin decided to explore, he could fly somewhat but he mostly hops around... he was so trusting that he perched on my hand without panic, he was almost like a pet parakeet...
we couldn't look after him forever because he's a wild bird but we still let him go... I was afraid a neighborhood cat might find him and make a snack out of him, but we had to let nature take its course (survival of the fittest?) and let the bird be...
how's the balancing act going with life, your new job, and school?
~Mike
Posted by: mike d. at June 29, 2008 4:17 PM