Hello everyone
I just want to share a little story, that occurred last night. While I was meditating on my balcony in the evening, I was wondering why there are no bird noises that usually fill the air in my big city backyard: Doves, sparrows, great tits, magpies and crows. I like to listen to these noises. Maybe it was already late or maybe... I was thinking about the Tunguska event that has been discussed on the Randall Carlson show that I'm currently watching. There it has been observed by eyewitnesses that the day of the catastrophy has been unusually quiet, the quiet before the storm as the saying goes. Anyway, later that day, an hour after sundown, I was talking to friend on the phone, when I suddenly heard scratching noises coming from the balcony door. A strange animal that I couldn't identify at first was scratching at the bottom of the glass door, as if it wanted to get in, like knocking on the door. After closer inspection it turned out to be a swift as I could tell from the shape of its pointy wings. In German it's called "Mauersegler" which literally translates into "wall swift".
I always like to observe them flying over the roof tops. They have beautiful silhouetes seen from below and they make high pitch screeching noises, which sound quite cute. This one seems to have crash-landed on my balcony. Since it couldn't fly away I thought it might be injured although there were no obvious signs of injury. The feathers looked beautiful and healthy. After I did some research about the proper way to deal with these little fellows, I put it into a properly prepared shoe box and let it spent the night inside. I wanted to prevent it from crash landing somewhere else after an attempt to leave the balcony. I also tried to give it water but it wasn't interested. It didn't seem to be afraid of humans, very tame in fact. But it's hard to tell how it really experiences the situation. I wanted its encounter with a third density being to be as pleasant as possible.
I did some more research and learned that this species spends most of it's life in the air and for anatomical reasons is unable to take off once they have ended up on the ground. It can't jump around as other birds. It only eats insects and shouldn't be fed with anything else. I also switched off the alarm clock so that it didn't get shocked by the sudden noise in the morning. I've learned that they are also very sensitive to noise.
The next day I got up early. It already scratched at the inside of the box. I was planning to bring it to a wild animal admitting facility and have some bird expert have a look. But first I called a local wild bird specialist and she advised me to first make sure, if the bird could fly away with a little bit of a jump start. I went down to the backyard and put it on my right hand. It was shivering which is a sign of preparation for take off as the specialist told me (accelerated heart beat). I tried to gently shake it off by moving my hand up and down and lo and behold: after some hesitation it started flying from wall to wall and back to the air until it managed to get over the roofs in an upward spiral and flew away. So it seems, it wasn't injured after all. I guess it just needed a little help to get back on its wings. ;) I called the local bird expert again to tell her how the story ended and that I hope it's alright. We speculated about the reason why it might have ended up on my balcony. She thanked me for my help and I thanked her for hers.
Seeing that beautiful bird up close, it's innocent nature, to be able to connect to something that I can only observe from far away, was very heartening. I'm glad that nature paid me a visit that way.
I just want to share a little story, that occurred last night. While I was meditating on my balcony in the evening, I was wondering why there are no bird noises that usually fill the air in my big city backyard: Doves, sparrows, great tits, magpies and crows. I like to listen to these noises. Maybe it was already late or maybe... I was thinking about the Tunguska event that has been discussed on the Randall Carlson show that I'm currently watching. There it has been observed by eyewitnesses that the day of the catastrophy has been unusually quiet, the quiet before the storm as the saying goes. Anyway, later that day, an hour after sundown, I was talking to friend on the phone, when I suddenly heard scratching noises coming from the balcony door. A strange animal that I couldn't identify at first was scratching at the bottom of the glass door, as if it wanted to get in, like knocking on the door. After closer inspection it turned out to be a swift as I could tell from the shape of its pointy wings. In German it's called "Mauersegler" which literally translates into "wall swift".
I always like to observe them flying over the roof tops. They have beautiful silhouetes seen from below and they make high pitch screeching noises, which sound quite cute. This one seems to have crash-landed on my balcony. Since it couldn't fly away I thought it might be injured although there were no obvious signs of injury. The feathers looked beautiful and healthy. After I did some research about the proper way to deal with these little fellows, I put it into a properly prepared shoe box and let it spent the night inside. I wanted to prevent it from crash landing somewhere else after an attempt to leave the balcony. I also tried to give it water but it wasn't interested. It didn't seem to be afraid of humans, very tame in fact. But it's hard to tell how it really experiences the situation. I wanted its encounter with a third density being to be as pleasant as possible.
I did some more research and learned that this species spends most of it's life in the air and for anatomical reasons is unable to take off once they have ended up on the ground. It can't jump around as other birds. It only eats insects and shouldn't be fed with anything else. I also switched off the alarm clock so that it didn't get shocked by the sudden noise in the morning. I've learned that they are also very sensitive to noise.
The next day I got up early. It already scratched at the inside of the box. I was planning to bring it to a wild animal admitting facility and have some bird expert have a look. But first I called a local wild bird specialist and she advised me to first make sure, if the bird could fly away with a little bit of a jump start. I went down to the backyard and put it on my right hand. It was shivering which is a sign of preparation for take off as the specialist told me (accelerated heart beat). I tried to gently shake it off by moving my hand up and down and lo and behold: after some hesitation it started flying from wall to wall and back to the air until it managed to get over the roofs in an upward spiral and flew away. So it seems, it wasn't injured after all. I guess it just needed a little help to get back on its wings. ;) I called the local bird expert again to tell her how the story ended and that I hope it's alright. We speculated about the reason why it might have ended up on my balcony. She thanked me for my help and I thanked her for hers.
Seeing that beautiful bird up close, it's innocent nature, to be able to connect to something that I can only observe from far away, was very heartening. I'm glad that nature paid me a visit that way.