Bird in the Office

Well, that was interesting. Our MIS, R---, and were walking down the hall, when I saw something out of the corner of my eye in the server room — a bird flying from over by the tape backups into R---'s office.

At first I thought it was my imagination, so R--- and I walked into the room and sure enough there was a song sparrow (Melospiza melodia) trying to find a way out. Apparently, he'd found a hole next to the window air-conditioning unit ...

K--- was walking past and stopped to see the commotion; it didn't register that we were yelling for him to shut the door until the bird buzzed him on his way out to the hall and into K--- and A---'s office, where he was trapped when they shut the door on their way out.

I got an old T-shirt and R--- got a box and, after a fairly comic 10 minutes of climbing over/under desks and cubes and (the bird) smacking into windows, we finally got the shirt over him, his wings pined, and then shuttled him down the stairwell and outside.

Sure a song sparrow is no red-tailed hawk, but a sparrow inside is considered a bad omen, so I'm trying not to let that freak me out ...

(And thinking about birds, last week Evelin and Celeste were walking down by Northwest Branch when Evelin noticed an eagle or hawk of some sort flying toward them. Evelin is certain she saw the bird's talons in an outstretched position — and headed for Celeste — so she quickly flipped up the sun cover on the jogging stroller and the bird changed direction and flew away.)

Technoarti tags: sparrow birds