Flying Lessons

Not me - baby birds.

Due to boat motor problems, our big boat is parked out on the river rather than in our little slough, and since I am not driving my own boat at the moment, I'm leaving my pistol in the seat while I'm at work.

Yesterday, when I got home, I tromped into the boat to get my pistol. I lifted the bench seat, which creaks like a door in a horror house, lifted my pistol out and set it on the folded front seat while I closed the bench again - it's kinda heavy and I don't want to pinch my fingers. Then I noticed, sitting on the floor of the boat right behind this seat, was a baby bird. It had most of it's grown-up feathers but it still had some baby peach-fuzz around the edges. I can only assume it screwed up by landing in the boat and somehow ended up down on the floor.

I have no idea what kind of bird it is, but I do know that they nest on the ground and spend a good deal of their time there. When alarmed, they chirp a sound kinda like an air kiss, and not the 'muah' kind - just a little clicking sound. They are always scolding the dog if she's with me.

It looked cold and was probably scared from all the horrible noise I'd just made, so I sat down and picked it up. I planned to hold it, giving it a warm place for as long as it wanted. It was a very trusting little guy, but it didn't seem to be interested in snuggling. It wriggled out of my hand and hopped up my arm until it ran into my upper arm. I reached to pet it and it flew to the front of the boat.

I finished putting my pistol belt on, figuring if it was still sitting there, I'd take it up out of the boat and maybe a little further away from the water. Not far - I could hear mom calling. But, this little guy wasn't interested in getting reacquainted. It flew out of the boat, but not up enough to land up on the ground. Instead, it landed down on the bank. In no danger of getting washed into the river, but I could have wished for a better landing spot. With tail feathers only about half an inch long (maybe), navigation wasn't it's strong point and that was likely why it had managed to get into it's original predicament in the boat. It just hadn't figured out how to do 'up' very well yet.

I left him alone. He was out of reach from the boat and if I tried to catch him from the bank, he might try to fly away out over the water and I didn't want that. I felt certain he would make it out of this spot even if he had to climb out - a possibility.

This morning, as I walked down to the boats to go to work, the whole family flew up into the trees. Flying lessons had progressed to 'up' just fine.