Wednesday, August 30, 2006

Lunchtime Discoveries

In the past week or so I've noticed a little bird hanging around outside of my workplace. When I first saw it, I thought maybe it had an injured wing because it hopped around and flew very awkwardly. Today, I saw it in a tree and discovered why it is so awkward. If you look closely, it appears to be blind. I didn't realize this until I got the image onto my computer screen. It's blindness would also explain why it is so scrawny.

The next bird flew into the same tree as the first one, just a few branches lower. This one flew more gracefully and appears to be healthy. It's certainly plumper than the the first one.

Now I have a moral dilemma. Should I try to feed the blind bird some cracker crumbs or should I just let nature take its course? I hate decisions like these!

After I tore myself away from the birds I wandered into the park and found lots of bees and several butterflies. I didn't realize the bee had gotten into this photo until I got it onto the computer.

5 comments:

Dave said...

Feed him...go ahead and fight for a bird fighting for its life.

Joanne said...

Hey, the Sears are known as the champions of "lost causes", but then when it comes to God's creations, as far as we're concerned, there is no such thing as lost causes........so feed him.

Stephen said...

Wow!! What amazing photos! I love that bee!

I think it wouldn't be so bad, if not too late to feed that poor, blind, scrawny little bird. It's amazing that it has survived into adulthood - prededors and all
! I see this little bird as God's way of touching your life - reminding us as Joanne says, "there is no such thing as lost causes."
Thanks for sharing such amazing photos!

Catharine said...

I have such a soft spot for animals. I have often thought that if I couldn't be a teacher then vet or zoologist would be my cause.

Tears come to my eyes when I see a suffering animal. I was watching A Bear Called Winnie, a CBC movie about Winnie the Pooh. There is a part in the movie where the soldier has to walk away and leave Winnie at the zoo while he goes off to war. Winnie cries constantly and goes on a hhunger strike - I balled and balled. I had to switch the channel until that part was over. Later in the movie the soldier is in hospital suffering from post traumatic stress syndrom. He is not talking to anyone and the only name he keeps saying is Winnie. So... the nurses and the soldier's commander arrange for Winnie to visit him in hospital. The reunion was a real tear jerker. Again, I balled and balled at the wonder of a relationship between a human and an animal.

I guess my point is...I couldn't walk away from the bird and his fight for life.

TO MY SIBLINGS... remember walking all the way to the gatehouse when we were camping to find someone to take care of a baby mouse we found? we feed it with an eye dropper....remember Erving the chicadee that we took in who couldn't fly? Erving (later I think we renamed him to Ervina) would hop around the backyard after mom.

Wasn't there another bird we took care of on Freeport?

Evie said...

I'm sorry to report that I haven't seen the blind bird since the day I took the photo. I've been watching out for it and our new receptionist was going to help me feed it - she used to be a naturalist at a local park. She had to quit that job when they cut her back to part-time status. We'll keep watching, but I fear the worst has happened.