Subject: close encounters of the bird kind
Date: Jul 18 09:18:46 1995
From: Joseph Pentheroudakis - josephp at microsoft.com


Just wanted to share the following:

Last Saturday I had left my back door open, and at some point I heard
strange noises in the kitchen. I didn't pay much attention, but later
in the day I decided to look into it. It turns out a black capped
chickadee had flown into the kitchen, had gotten trapped between the
table and the (closed) window, and had been flying into the window off
and on for a couple of hours. I went up to him and stuck out my index
finger, offering him a perch. Sure enough, he came right up and
perched on my finger! I then transported him to the outside, and he
flew off, much relieved, I'm sure.

I was very touched by this. My only contact with birds in the wild is
visual and auditory, so when that little bird decided to go beyond that
and take me up on my offer of some sort of familiar place (a perch), I
was thrilled. I know that the Paridae are generally friendly and cross
into our space relatively easily, but still, it was a very sweet moment.

- Joseph