How to survive a TKO

    Wham! It was louder than the alarm clock which hadn’t yet rung. In the gloom of dawn I stepped towards the window, afraid of seeing exactly what I saw –

    Wham! It was louder than the alarm clock which hadn’t yet rung. In the gloom of dawn I stepped towards the window, afraid of seeing exactly what I saw – a tiny bird on the porch roof, flat on its back and to all appearances dead except for one spasmodically twitching foot.

    When a bird slams into a window- your window- it’s hard not to feel like a murderer, or at least an accessory. All those idle moments that could have been spent hanging shiny gewgaws in the center of every large pane of glass come back in a flash of self-reproach.

    Bird experts say that the impact of hitting a window at top speed often doesn’t actually kill a bird, only stuns it. Sometimes the bird can unscramble its brains if it has a safe place to recover for awhile. This bird had been stopped from tumbling completely to the ground by some 2 x 4’s on the roof, so at least it was protected from the opportunistic predator that might pass by.

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    Within thirty minutes, the bird was upright again, although its eyes were still shut and somewhat sunken. When I came back again later it was gone, and there were no stray feathers or any other signs of foul play on the roof or the ground.

    I like to think this bird made it, but I wonder how long the headache lasted.

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