For the Birds

Yesterday we had a bird in the house. It was terribly exciting for the kids. Not so much for me.

It was in the front room at first, fluttering away at the plastic over the windows. We were sitting in the living room doing school when the commotion started. It took me a while to figure out what the sound was, and then I had to peel back the plastic over the doorway to get in there and take a look around. That room has been insulated, but the old insulation has been piled up in the corner, the trim is in a pile along the wall, plus the blue couch, the old treadmill, orange chair, and the wooden toybox are all spending their winter in there. In other words, there were plenty of places for a sneaky old Starling to hide from me as I tried to catch him.

I had to draw the line at digging through the old insulation to catch it, and kept waiting for it to come back out and attack the plastic window out in the open by the blue couch. Then I’d rush back in with a blanket and try to corner him or trap him. Eventually I did corner him. In the wrong place. Just when I thought I had him for sure, he ducked under the doorway and went into the office. Great. The piles of paperwork, boxes of files, two desks, and a Dora kitchen will make it SO much easier to catch a bird.

I opened the door to the office to try and get him to come out into the house, but he wanted nothing to do with that. The house got colder by the minute! That is the COLD side of the house that we shut off and ignore for the winter months and it acts as a buffer to the cold northwest wind.

Eventually the Starling got tired and I cornered it and caught it. The kids were ecstatic! I opened the door and tossed him up while the kids watched with their noses pressed against the kitchen windows. That was our excitement for the day! We went back to school work and learning our letters and I tried to answer the question, “How did the bird get in the house, Mom?” lol! Good question, son. Good question. I guess that’s a hazard (one of many) of living in a very old farmhouse and being surrounded by very pesky and persistent Starlings.