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I now have a Bird Story. I am so excited. It's like a rite of passage, to have a special story. I have several special stories of course, but now I have a Bird Story.
Last night I stayed at work late in an attempt to get school work done. (We'll ignore the fact that one chapter of school work took 2 hours to complete.) It was 7:00 when I finally said "enough!" and got the hell out of here.
Now, it's 7:00 on an early March night, so that means it was dark out. Due to our parking and the layout of the building, I go up to the fourth floor to cross a walkway to the parking deck. For some inexplicable reason, the lighting on the walkway isn't working. There is faint lighting from the building and faint lighting from the parking deck spilling onto the walkway.
Thank god for faint lighting.
I had just stepped out the door, which closed and latched behind me. I took two steps forward and suddenly noticed something very strange on the hand rail of the walkway (open air walkway). This something strange would happen to be very fluffy and about a foot and a half high.
This something strange, as it turns out, is either an owl or a hawk. Color me excited.
It had ruffled it's feathers, probably in an attempt to keep warm. I, after all, do not know the roosting habits of birds of prey. It also had it's head tucked under it's wing. So basically, this thing was a foot and a half tall minus a head. (The fact that I couldn't see the head and the lighting was bad is why I could never figure out whether it was an owl or a hawk.)
So there I am, on a walkway several stories up, no way back into the building, only one route to the parking deck, a route that goes past a large, sleeping taloned bird.
Did I mention the talons? That I could see quite clearly, even in the dark? Those things were massive. Scarily massive. Birds of prey on National Geographic are cool when they snag a sparrow for lunch, but put one in the vicinity of your tender parts and it becomes a whole new game.
So I did the smart thing. I stood as far away as I could and made lots of noise trying to scare it off.
Apparently it was very sleepy and not about to move just because of one crazy, loud white girl.
My next, and only, option was to walk very gingerly past it. My purse became an instant shield, as I am willing to sacrifice cute in favor of pain any day of the week. The only problem being, of course, that my cute purse is very, very little. Cute purse = bad shield.
Lucky for me the bird could have cared less that I was close enough to reach out my arm and touch it. For me it was an astounding experience, being less than a foot from such a creature. Of course, because I had to share in the excitement, I used my cell phone to call back down to the office to let the three people still there know there was a hindrence to them getting out. But before the phone could ring, one of them came trotting out.
Needless to say, she was as in awe as me. The thing about her is, she's the type of person that has Animal Control on speed dial for that moment when she stumbles across anything poor and pitiful that needs rescueing. She also has several wild life and rescue organizations on speed dial. She even carries a dog carrier in the back of her SUV for any animal emergencies.
So her automatic reaction? "Is it hurt?" *G* Luckily her husband had come by to pick her up, because if she had gone to cuddle it, I'm sure he would have grabbed her and hauled her butt away, chewing her out the entire time.
We "oohed" and "ahhed" over it for a good ten minutes before finally heading on our way. Of course it was gone this morning. But I spent several minutes in the presence of a really big bird. I'm excited. Bird Story!
Last night I stayed at work late in an attempt to get school work done. (We'll ignore the fact that one chapter of school work took 2 hours to complete.) It was 7:00 when I finally said "enough!" and got the hell out of here.
Now, it's 7:00 on an early March night, so that means it was dark out. Due to our parking and the layout of the building, I go up to the fourth floor to cross a walkway to the parking deck. For some inexplicable reason, the lighting on the walkway isn't working. There is faint lighting from the building and faint lighting from the parking deck spilling onto the walkway.
Thank god for faint lighting.
I had just stepped out the door, which closed and latched behind me. I took two steps forward and suddenly noticed something very strange on the hand rail of the walkway (open air walkway). This something strange would happen to be very fluffy and about a foot and a half high.
This something strange, as it turns out, is either an owl or a hawk. Color me excited.
It had ruffled it's feathers, probably in an attempt to keep warm. I, after all, do not know the roosting habits of birds of prey. It also had it's head tucked under it's wing. So basically, this thing was a foot and a half tall minus a head. (The fact that I couldn't see the head and the lighting was bad is why I could never figure out whether it was an owl or a hawk.)
So there I am, on a walkway several stories up, no way back into the building, only one route to the parking deck, a route that goes past a large, sleeping taloned bird.
Did I mention the talons? That I could see quite clearly, even in the dark? Those things were massive. Scarily massive. Birds of prey on National Geographic are cool when they snag a sparrow for lunch, but put one in the vicinity of your tender parts and it becomes a whole new game.
So I did the smart thing. I stood as far away as I could and made lots of noise trying to scare it off.
Apparently it was very sleepy and not about to move just because of one crazy, loud white girl.
My next, and only, option was to walk very gingerly past it. My purse became an instant shield, as I am willing to sacrifice cute in favor of pain any day of the week. The only problem being, of course, that my cute purse is very, very little. Cute purse = bad shield.
Lucky for me the bird could have cared less that I was close enough to reach out my arm and touch it. For me it was an astounding experience, being less than a foot from such a creature. Of course, because I had to share in the excitement, I used my cell phone to call back down to the office to let the three people still there know there was a hindrence to them getting out. But before the phone could ring, one of them came trotting out.
Needless to say, she was as in awe as me. The thing about her is, she's the type of person that has Animal Control on speed dial for that moment when she stumbles across anything poor and pitiful that needs rescueing. She also has several wild life and rescue organizations on speed dial. She even carries a dog carrier in the back of her SUV for any animal emergencies.
So her automatic reaction? "Is it hurt?" *G* Luckily her husband had come by to pick her up, because if she had gone to cuddle it, I'm sure he would have grabbed her and hauled her butt away, chewing her out the entire time.
We "oohed" and "ahhed" over it for a good ten minutes before finally heading on our way. Of course it was gone this morning. But I spent several minutes in the presence of a really big bird. I'm excited. Bird Story!
The hawk apparently was not a one-time thing. The hawk was seen as early as 10 till 5:00 yesterday and as late as around 9:30 this morning.
Which is why we have decided to name the hawk.
I proposed George, but that was nixed as not being regal enough. Pfft. I don't care about regal. I just want to walk around saying "We shall love him and keep him and name him George."
I have my priorities after all.
Which is why we have decided to name the hawk.
I proposed George, but that was nixed as not being regal enough. Pfft. I don't care about regal. I just want to walk around saying "We shall love him and keep him and name him George."
I have my priorities after all.
.