The above was not a fun situation to witness, this morning.
Interestingly enough, it happened while I was watching a series about farming ( Clarkson's Farm ), while it was raining outside...
All of a sudden, I noticed some movement, out of the corner of my eyes, coming from the kitchen.
It appeared to be this little bird, trying to flap its wings,
desperate to escape from the gluey fly trap it had gotten stuck on.
I couldn't help but wonder how it had entered my house. It must have hopped underneath the magnetic fly net, in front of my kitchen door, after which it discovered the handful of dead flies, on the fly trap above my kitchen table.
It's not like I have cats that bring in birds from the garden, so this inquisitive, courageous bird took the initiative all by itself.
Whatever's been the case, I didn't like what I saw and really felt for the little bird. I was genuinally worried, whether I would be able to free it from the fly trap. Knowing how sticky this stuff is and seeing how small this bird was.
I climbed on a chair, detached the glue strip from the ceiling and slowly walked outside, while the bird kept flapping its wings slowly and in vain.
I wasn't really sure what to do with it, as I felt the strip might be stronger than the bird. One thought, running through my mind, was to pour fresh, natural water on it, from the overflow in my garden. But I didn't know if that would make things worse.
So, instead, I laid it down in the grass, carefully, and grabbed some small gardening scissors that I had used to prune my grapevine with, yesterday night.
Let's try to not make this too dramatic.
My help ( I cut away part of the fly strip making sure to not cut the bird ) but mainly the struggle for survival from the little bird itself, led to it freeing itself from the glue strip. It then hopped away to a safe spot, to calm down.
Some of its feathers were still stuck on the strap but it was worth the sacrifice.
I was genuinely happy that its head and legs didn't end up there - both were glued stuck for a little while and that wasn't a fun sight - or that it didn't die on the spot, wrapped in a gluey fly strap.
It is now about two hours later and I think the li'l birdie is okay.
I saw it hopping/flying away and hiding in another spot, about an hour ago, making itself invisible in a little alcove in a xisto (schist) wall near my house.
In fact, I might even have spotted it in a tree or a bush, just now. It is hard to tell if it was this exact bird, as my garden is pretty lush and green and there's a bunch of small birds.
Let's declare this a happy ending though, as I helped it escape from a likely death and there are no cats and dogs in - or near - my garden.
🐦💚
