I’m Fixing To Save This Bird

I’m fixing to save this bird.

I had just about dozed off on the sofa, in that state just between wakefulness and sleep where you are still aware of your surroundings, but don’t care about them anymore, when I heard this loud WHUMP! that bought me out of that pleasant state.

At first I imagined a tree had fallen on the roof or a dump truck had crashed into my rock mailbox, but after sitting up and blinking a few time I determined the noise had come from out on my deck, so I roused myself up and proceeded out my back door to investigate.

I didn’t see anything out of the ordinary at first, then a small feather came floating down and as my eyes followed it downward I discovered I had almost stumbled over this magnificent bird.

He was about the biggest bird I had ever seen up close, other than a stuffed one. In fact he was almost as large as a chicken, and he was lying on his back with his head lolled over to the side with his tongue hanging out of the side of his beak.

I figured that from the looks of things he had crashed into one of my big glass windows and knocked himself cuckoo.

He had some claw-like feet with a black body, a white neck and a big red head on him that swept back to a point like Woody Wood Pecker.

There was also a little red streak on his neck, so I figured he was a red neck bird, but later on found out he was a Pileated Woodpecker, a big mature one.

I knew from experience that he would die if he stayed in his current position. I had been taught this by the late and lovely Beverly Lawrence.

She taught me that a bird in this state stood a pretty good chance of surviving if you turned them over from their back to their belly, so I tenderly rolled this noble looking bird over so that he was sitting right side up, and in a couple of minutes his sagging head picked up and his eyes opened, but he just sat there blinking.

Knowing I would not likely ever have the opportunity again, I gently stroked his red head. I could tell he didn’t like that because he jerked and twitched a couple of times, but he still just sat there blinking.

I have seen stray cats strolling across my deck on occasions, so I pulled up a chair, determined to stay with him until he got his senses back.

About 20 minutes later, just before I was about to give up on him, he suddenly came back to life and exploded into flight.
The only thing was he didn’t gain enough altitude before he got to the rail of the deck, and instead of going over it he went through it. Feathers flew in all directions when he hit the rails and I’m thinking this bird is going to go and kill himself after I have saved him.

He did dip pretty low after he made it through, but then he flapped his big wings hard and made it to a big pine tree where he attached himself to the trunk of it. He perched there sideways for a while, resting I supposed.

Just before he took flight he turned his head toward where I was standing on the deck and I imagined that was his way of expressing his appreciation, then he took flight on strong wings and I knew the world was fixing to be a better place.