Friend In Need Knocks On The Door
It was mid morning last Saturday. I was working on my computer upstairs and my wife was busy watering and pruning the plants in the front beds. I heard a sound I couldn’t quite identify and went back to work. In a few minutes, my wife called up to me that I needed to come look on the front porch. When I looked through the storm door I saw a little bird, obviously dazed. I didn’t realize yet this was to be my friend in need.
I walked slowly and carefully out to where the bird was. I visually inspected it for signs of injury. It didn’t appear to be favoring a wing or standing funny so I thought I would just sit a few more minutes with it and see how it did. It seemed to come around a bit so I thought I would very carefully pick it up and see if I could at least get it off the ground and into a nearby tree. Its objections to that convinced me it was doing even better than I thought. It squawked and flew into a nearby bush with apparent ease. Here are the pictures my wife took of it.
We decided to leave it be and give it a small bit of water where it could see it from where it was perched. We left and when I came back to check in 30 minutes or so, it had flown off. My wife and I were happy.
Window Strike Mortality
I should say here that I’m aware of the mortality rate of window strikes. However, I believe this bird was foraging around in one of our patio planters very close to our house when it was startled so I don’t think it hit that hard.
Shortly after this encounter, I consulted my trusty Smithsonian Birds of North America
book and discovered this was a Magnolia Warbler. The range map indicated that it was here on its way south, probably Florida. It also told me it was a female in non-breeding plumage.
My Friend Returns
Fast forward to Monday afternoon. I was downstairs enjoying some tea and a book and heard a familiar sound on my back door. This time I was able to see a bird trying to land on one of the door’s panes and failing. The poor thing was barely able to keep from free falling to the ground but did manage a soft landing.
I peeked through the glass to see-you guessed it-my little friend sitting on my top patio step looking disoriented. Because the door opens in, I stepped out there and sat down next to her. I was really worried because she was panting and just staring at the door. She had no drooping wing or other obvious injury.
After a couple of minutes, the sweetest thing occurred. She turned her head and was looking at me. I got a little water from a nearby bird bath and let it drop off my index finger. She took it thankfully and it really seemed to revive her. She returned to staring at me. I sat still.
In a few more minutes I asked her if she felt well enough to fly. She turned her head, looked at me, and flew off into a nearby tree. I have not seen her since.
Benefit of Paying Attention
It’s amazing what wonderful things we can see when we’re paying attention. I hope and pray that my friend did not sustain any serious injury and that she made it to Florida to be with her friends. I further hope that I was able to assist her (even in a small way) to continue her journey in life.
Over to You
If you’ve had a similar experience with any wildlife, I’d love to hear about it. Also, if you’ve enjoyed this post please share it on social media with the buttons below.
Jeff
Arron Cutone says
I keep getting errors when I try to add the blogs RSS feed to my feed reading software. Any idea as to what I could be doing wrong?
Jeff says
I use Google reader and it’s going right to where I can subscribe when I click on the feed icon. I’m not familiar with many stand alone feed reading software. It’s real easy to use. I don’t know about importing your current feeds into it though.