BIRD NEWS:81

The final day of September arrived and I was in the kitchen cooking when spotted a black lump on the garden path near the plants my friend had given me were planted.

At first, I thought it was a dead leaf or a bird foraging for bugs. After I decided it was not a leaf and it remained motionless, I went outside to take a closer look, concerned that were it an injured bird a cat might spot it just as easily as myself.

It was a bird - a blackbird - seemingly adult. It did not move away when I approached and I managed to get very close and take a photograph or two. The only reaction to my presence was for the bird to look at me, then turn away from me and stare at the plants before shutting its eyes.

Such trust from a bird has not been shown to me for a long time but I remained concerned. Even were it not injured and merely meditating, a cat could so easily approach and murder it. I kept an eye on it, thru the kitchen window for a while - but it just sat there meditating. Were it not for the potential cat attack, I would have left it in peace.

I lined a basket with soft leaves and went to try to pick it up to put it in the alleyway for safety. However, it did not trust me any longer when i attempted to do so - flew up into a tree, promptly fell out of the tree, then flew into the hedgetop. It was then safe from cats and I decided to leave it alone to continue meditating if that is what it wished, although it may have had injured legs, it could still fly after all.

Wanna be a bird? TRY THIS!!!!