Monday 23 January 2017

the eagle has landed - er no - the jackdaw has flown



The other day, on a beautiful sunny morning, Jack the one eyed jackdaw at last flew to freedom.




In spite of the information I had received that he would not survive - he was as wild as the wind and once he'd got fit and healthy he could not possibly have spent his life in captivity. He had the sky in that one eye and when I opened the door for him he soared up into the blue and away across the fields. It was a thrilling sight though he took a piece of my heart with him.



He'll stay with me though. I have started to write a new story about - well - a one eyed jackdaw. He never spoke in all the time I had him and I wonder if back in Nature he'll find a voice to tell the others where he'd been for the past two months. He might even recommend CHEESE which I imagine is difficult to find if you're a bird living in the wild.I hope someone else teaches him the joy of bathing though. Unlike all the other birds I've rescued he never once went into the water bowl.


Pixie's Interesting Blog Post Fact is...........
Bald eagles aren't actually bald.

Of course whether or not one should let Nature take its course is a hugely debatable matter. Should you leave a struggling creature to its fate or help it out? There are masses of fantastic videos on You Tube of people untangling swans necks and rescuing ducklings from drains and baby foxes who have lost their mothers. I'd certainly be unable to leave a creature if I felt I could help it out. Jack would certainly be dead if someone hadn't rescued him and kindly given him to me to care for. But he must now take his chances. Isn't there a saying that it is better to live a day as a tiger than a year as a sheep? Beezle's not sure anyone said that but as he and Montaigne would say "To lament that one shall not be alive a hundred years hence, is the same folly as to be sorry we were not alive a hundred years ago."


Beezle, who has the thinest whippet skin, is now sporting a smart brown fleecy coat as he gets so cold. (No picture supplied but might be used in blackmail at another time.) He loves it though I miscalculated the measurements and its a wee bit short in the length. What I suspect might be a little dog "hoody" comes down his neck and not over the back of his head but he still looks very distinguished and when he first got it he liked to show off and scampered around wagging his tail. Pixie who has plenty of coat of her own was not impressed. We took him for a walk to Durdle Door on one of these fine winter mornings where we met simply masses of other dogs. None of them took the slightest bit of interest in him and we reckoned they all looked at him and thought "old man" - so we took it off and then he got lots of attention. He is of course an old man now and it was quite a walk for him up and down those steps and he slipped a couple of times. The beach pebbles made his feet a bit sore but on the whole it was a good outing and made a change from where we are. For instance there are no squirrels on the beach or deer or rabbits. But there was a heartbreaking sign with a picture of "George" a staffie looking dog with the words "I am George. I used to love this beach. My ashes are scattered here. Please take a ball and enjoy." And under the sign was a box of balls. We wept.







And here is Beezle enjoying his outing without his coat on.



OK I know I've put this up before but it's one of the great poems about the Eagle.

The Eagle

Related Poem Content Details

He clasps the crag with crooked hands; 
Close to the sun in lonely lands, 
Ring'd with the azure world, he stands. 

The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls; 
He watches from his mountain walls, 
And like a thunderbolt he falls. 

No comments:

Post a Comment