Rescue!

It's snowing in Oregon today, Not just snowing...S-N-O-W-I-N-G! Paralyzes the hell out of native Oregonians.

And birds! I indulge in what I am told is one of the most popular hobbies in America. I have at least six different fancy bird feeders outside my patio door...and their favorite dining spot is currently the old Marie Callender pie tin I put under the picnic table on the deck.

Today's snow brought the little guys out in droves. Unfortunately, it has also made the windows and doors look too much like somewhere to go when they're spooked...I had them bouncing off the patio door all morning. We had just come in from slogging to the grocery store and *wham*...looked outside and there's a little guy spread-eagled in the snow on one of the deck chairs. We rushed out to see if he was still alive. Breathing, yes, but he was NOT okay...he looked like Wylie Coyote after he gets hit in the head with an anvil.

What to do with him? Finally decided to bring him in the house so he wouldn't freeze. Put him in a plastic bucket with a wire rack over the top, stuck him in the guest bathroom (seemed somehow apropos) and went about the business of making breakfast. I was not optimistic about his chances for recovery... he just kept closing his eyes and going into the twilight zone.

After about an hour I went in to check on him. He was looking around a little, but still not moving much. Decided to put some food in there for him, so I lifted his lid...and suddenly had a little bird flying all over my bathroom and cheeping curses at me. A little bird who wanted nothing to do with my catching him and trying to put him back in his bucket. He bounced off the mirror three or four times, and I'm thinking..."Jeesh, I brought this poor little thing in out of the snow to kill himself on my bathroom mirror...!'" They're SO hard to catch...so tiny, I was afraid my big stupid human hands would crush him, and when I finally got hold of him, he weighed nothing. It was like holding air with feathers.

Back in his bucket he went, wire rack firmly replaced. And then we marched out to the back deck and ceremoniously removed the rack. With a little prodding, he abandoned his bucket and flew up into the neighbor's tree to rejoin the cheeping hordes of his buddies. BIG smile on my face. Feeling large, like Mother Nature. Great way to start the new year!