Friday, July 7 was an amazing day. Mother Nature interfered with my ability to do my work, but it the most fun I've had in quite some time!Around 10 AM, a commissioner came in to pick up his paperwork for next week's meeting and told us that a bird had tried to land on his head. Being the curious type, I went outside to see if I could locate the bird. The temperature outside was very near 90 degrees, the skies were quite overcast and humidity was hovering around 99%. I was wearing a wool sweater because my boss keeps the thermostat set at meat locker temps. So, there I am, standing in the parking lot, looking up into a mahogany tree, trying to locate this bird. The commissioner came to the door and pointed at the tree and said, "There it is." At just that moment, I caught site of the bird and it bird swooped down and landed right on my head!
The remainder of the day was spent with this bird plucking at my earrings and generally interfering with my work! He/she was quite friendly and very accustomed to riding around on the shoulder of a human. It did fuss quite a bit when I talked on the phone. It would move from shoulder to shoulder, fussing all the while, and every effort to change ears was to no avail. This guy/gal just didn't like it when I talked on the phone and was quite vocal about it!
My office mate, Carmen, enjoyed the bird, too. It seems she's never had that kind of exposure to a bird, so at first she was scared of it. But, by the afternoon, she was quite comfortable with our little feathered friend. (See picture, above!)
When the District crew came in from the field a little after 3 PM, they identified the bird as a Quaker Parakeet. I thought it was some kind of parrot, so that just goes to show you how much I know about birds. Then, Scottie informed me he had rescued one from a cat a few weeks earlier and he'd taken it home and adopted it. Unfortunately, he said, it had been de-feathering itself lately. He said he'd visited the old Chinaman at the bird shop up on Davie Road and the old Chinaman said the bird needed a mate.
So, I said, "Hey, Scottie: wanna take this bird home?"
To which he responded, "You bet!"
I never had a day when a bird landed on my head before this one. I once served as foster parent to an injured dove who liked to ride around on my head, but that's not the same as this.
Friday, July 7 will stand out in my mind as an unusual day. Maybe it's nature's way of directing wildlife that can't survive in the wild. Maybe I was just in the right place at the right time. Whatever the reasons, I sure did enjoy the company and the distraction and I hope he/she is enjoying his new home.
