A Feathered Friend

Birds are such common sight on my window. Then for sometime my attention was drawn by the seagull’s squeal at the roof of the neighboring house. It was the height of summer in Boscombe, a Borough of Bournemouth in the U.K. Although the peak of the day’s heat could be scorching for an outdoor walk where weeks before an alarm for a possible heat wave was aired over the news on TV, a forecast for rainy days followed with accompanying lightning flashes that kept the summer heat within sustainable range, and opening the windows adds up to the cooling effect.

So writing my articles by the window side with the laptop placed on a small table with my back on the window pane had become my way of passing time. Occasional wail of the birds outside will oblige me to turn my back for a glance and sights of wild pigeons and seagulls would be something nice to the feel that often tempted me to take some snapshots even though quite way out of range. The digital zoom function on the camera however, allowed me to get a closer look at the birds. Days went by and I noticed seagulls at the opposite row of houses whose roof provide a space for nesting and I realized the male gull was probably feeding its young judging from stuff by its beak being passed to a protruding shadow hidden behind the roof structure. I just watched it in amazement how the seagull kept his young at the rooftop where at the peak of the day’s heat, it would be quite hot and unbearable out there. When rains come, there’s the issue of the extreme cold. Then comes that very day I could see the silhouette of the young seagull trying to flap its wings moving at tip toe. I never did think that one day that seagull chick up that roof would end up in my arms.

It was one late afternoon on a Tuesday that I was on my way back to the flat after buying some stuff from the grocery store that I saw my neighbour staring at what he thought to be a duckling. I stopped for awhile and I realized that the street corner was below the house where I used to observe seagulls at the roof.  Then I was quite amazed that what my neighbour thought as a duckling was actually a seagull’s chick which had fallen from the roof but which appeared unhurt but unable to fly back where it came from. Being quite bothered that the creature would be ran over by a car taking the short cut on the block, I reached out for it and relocated it at the inside fence at the backyard of the house on the top of the cover of a huge trash bin. The young gull stood there barely moving but still in good shape and I was reminded of the camera with my cellphone so I took some shots. Before turning my back I heard birds’ squeal on the roof and found out a pair of parent gulls  were perched on top staring at the chick so I thought it will be safe leaving it there. The evening came and the thought came back to me the fact that I didn’t brought the young seagull home. I was considering the young gull’s wings are quite undeveloped for a leap that will allow it to get back to the roof or the odd possibility that the parent gulls will be able to pick it by its beak and return it back in the nesting place. The evening was getting cold and dark and if the creature was still there where I left it, it should have been feasted to shreds by stray cats. Out of some undefined guilt, I left the flat and walk the block and arrived at the place. A pair of seagulls were still on the lookout from the rooftop at the glimmer of the moonlight. I searched the thrash bin and the surrounding area but the creature was nowhere. Had it wandered far and got lost or eventually picked up by a curious passer by? I couldn’t help thinking when I got back to the flat before I was about to sleep. It would be such a bad fate if it ended up at the mercy of stray cats or the ravaging hunger of rats on the sewer, all because I left it there where I could have taken it home and nurture it to be strong to fly for less than a week.  I was able to forget the encounter in the days that followed but the thought would occasionally bother my thinking. On the third day, I heard a typical squeal on my window and I stared at the roof spot and saw the seagulls on their typical acrobatic play by the wind, gliding and taking the landing back at the nesting spot. There it was, the young gull in tip toe balancing itself on the roof but with developed wings, I failed to be a “Good Samaritan” to the animal but I knew nature has the best way for its survival and it did make it back at the nesting place with its parents to my great relief.  

Thanks for reading my other article on animals;

A Pet from the Wild

The Order of Giants I 

The Order of Giants Part Two