Gone To The Birds

Poor Fran. She had a bit of a testing day yesterday whilst I was "enjoying" myself in London for work.

Every year around this time we have a couple of weeks where birds nest in next door's roof space and raise their young. So for a fortnight we are woken early and there's nothing we can do about it but wait for the birds - thrushes I think, certainly not an owl - to rear their young and then they fly off and all goes quiet.

Anyway this year they have managed to get in our own roof space on the back corner and Fran was woken and was thinking the noise was louder than usual when Jess, one of our two cats, appeared from the hallway at the kitchen door with a bird in his mouth.

Cue screams, during which a very disappointed cat suddenly realised he wasn't going to be applauded for being clever and went to hide the evidence, reappearing a moment later with empty mouth and an expression that said "You just imagined it,Mum! Me? Catch a bird?"

Our cats are house cats - they don't go out, so the bird must have got in somehow. No windows were open. The attic hatch was closed... Fran phoned me to let off a few hysterics. Well, shock more than hysterics. Then she went off to search the house looking for the tiny bird that was certainly going to be terrified and possibly injured too. Jess, by now, was sitting quietly on the settee, ears flattened, waiting to be shouted at...

The bird was found in the toilet, cowering behind the toilet brush. Fran gathered it up and took it outside where it managed to fly off. All was well until later when she had sat down in the living room with a coffee to settle her nerves when TWEET!... from somewhere in the living room.

The cats politely raised their heads but were not going to budge after all the fuss of before. Two birds had managed to get in. The one from the toilet had been a second one and the one that Jess had managed to catch was now in the corner on the floor under my desk. So Fran had to get on hands and knees under the desk, banging her head as she jumped each time the bird fluttered anywhere near her.

She caught this one as well, in a tupperware box, took it outside, opened the box and watched in dismay as it took a brave leap - into the fishpond... The box was used to scoop it out and she put it somewhere as safe as she could to let it dry off and recover.

When I got home last night all the drama was finished with. I suspect the birds have nested on top of the wall of the house and the two small ones had fallen down the wall cavity and forced their way through a vent in the toilet which has a loose corner.

After the initial shock had worn off, Fran had been really brave and level headed about it. Not sure I'd have been any calmer actually!

Large versions of the photos: owl, ostritch (no large one of the vulture available) The owl and ostritch were photographed at Blackpool Zoo, the vulture at Chester Zoo.