so, while waiting for the bus on my morning commute to work i happened to look over at the line of shops behind the bus stop and i saw a bird (probably a sparrow) in distress. it appeared to be caught by it's wing, tangled in some kind of very thin cord or cable or wire, hanging from the overhang in front of one of the shops. it flapped about frantically trying to escape but it was stuck. i felt like i wanted to do something about it but it was too high for me to have been able to reach it. it was a sad sight to see.
it got a little better, though, when i saw it drop to the ground. it was free, no longer hanging by it's wing by some cord that i couldn't make out from across the parking lot. but then i realized it wasn't flying away or even moving much and it dawned on me that it might have spent everything it had getting loose, or it's wing might be broken, or something equally final.
then, as i watched, i saw it move and difficult to see bundle beside it also moved. i realized that while it was no longer hanging from the overhang in front of the shop, it was still tangled up in something. and now that it was on the ground i crossed the parking lot to investigate and see if there was anything i could do.
it turns out what it was tangled in was some very long dried grass. probably it was material for a nest as there were several pieces loosely tangled together. some of it got wrapped around it's wing, seemingly knotted from the brief glimpses i got of it. the bird was picking at the grass trying to free it's wing, but with such long pieces of grass it could be difficult for something so small to untangle it.
i pulled out the tiny scissors on my swiss army knife intending to at least cut away the long trailing pieces of grass, but the bird scurried under a car before i could get to it. i went back and forth between both sides of the car, hoping i could get it to go out the opposite side, but no such luck.
my actions attracted the attention of the car's owner who i explained the situation to, but as he offered to move the car my bus finally arrived. i had to go. maybe the car owner took over trying to free the bird, or even better maybe the bird will be able to cut through the grass on it's own with it's beak. wish i could have done more, though.
