Our Darling Starling

Last night was quite an adventure at the Chapman home.

The boys and I arrived home around 6:15 p.m. I started to make dinner then I realized the dogs were acting a little odd. They were focused on a large vent cover in our dinning room. hmm. Upon closer inspection I realized there was a lot of dust around the vent. Then I heard something flailing about in there. hmm.

So, I decided to call upon some neighbors. Within minutes my neighbor, Pasi, was at my door with work gloves in hand. He removed the vent cover and discovered a bird. A starling to be exact. Unfortunately, the bird was out of reach and not flapping about at this point. Pasi had a meeting to go to for his boys' track team. And he already seemed to be running late so I reminded him of that meeting and he promised to come back after the meeting in about an hour. Yikes! So, he screwed the vent cover back on and left.

I went back to making dinner. And about 5 minutes later I heard Benjamin say "We have a bird in our house." At first I thought he heard it flapping around again inside the vent. Then I looked at him and I realized he was watching the bird fly around our home. He was quite excited actually.

(So, this is where I kinda lost my cool and the craziness ensued).

I called my neighbor Katie "Is Dale home?"

"No, he just left. Why?"

"I have a bird flying around my house."

"I'll be right there."

Apparently, Pasi hadn't screwed the vent cover back on well enough to keep him in.

Katie showed up at our mad house. The dogs were going nuts. The bird was flapping all over the house from the front of the house to the back and the dogs were running right along with it. Benjamin was laughing hysterically and Samuel was crying in his high chair (it was dinner time). I was irritated and intimidated by the feathered guy. ugh. I didn't know exactly what a starling was until yesterday and I don't consider them to be particularly pretty birds.

We have lovely 12 foot ceilings in our kitchen area and the bird kept flying over there but wouldn't get out the big sliding glass door. It spent some time perched on our ceiling fan, our hanging pot rack, the top of the kitchen cabinets as well as several window sills.

It stayed inside an open crock I have above my kitchen cabinets for some time. So, we decided I should approach it. I was scared but eventually climbed up on top of the sink. And Katie says, "Be careful. Nothing can happen to you. We need you too much. " (Kind of a funny quote in hind site). Of course as soon as I got up there the darn thing flew out of the crock on another flying spree all over the house.

Eventually, Katie and I got the dogs outside and the bird cornered. By this point Katie had a bucket in her hand and I had a bath towel. Not sure what her plan was but I thought maybe I could throw the towel over it and capture it. Katie ditched the bucket at some point and picked up the kids' toy drum that has a separate lid. At this point her game plan was to get it in the drum then close the lid. hmm. I would have loved to see that happen. And she started calling to the bird in her best animal friendly voice "Come here, Boo." No such luck.

Eventually, I managed to get a front window open and the screen popped off and out that crazy bird flew.

As Katie left she said, "I don't know what you needed me for you got it."

"For moral support, Katie."

This morning on the way to his buddy, Jack's house Benjamin saw a bird flying and said "There he is. Our bird!"