So ... I'm sitting on the back step this morning enjoying a cup of coffee, contemplating having to mow the grass soon. It is getting greener and taller by the day. As i was reaching for my coffee that was sitting beside me, WHAMO something hit the patio door above my head with enough force to shake the step! As i'm instinctively ducking and looking around, a Barnswallow almost fell into my cup!


My first thought was, how nice ... now the Jack Russell can have a snack if she finds it. She has a well founded disdain for anything of the Avian species. A natural born hunter she routinely (almost daily) eats mice, small rabbits or whatever she can catch. She is very good at catching critters. When she was little, with her natural instinct to hunt combined with a 'cat like' curiosity, she had a bad experience with Blue Jays.

It was so bad that she was afraid to go outside and pee for a long time. They would literally attack her before she had reached the bottom of the steps, to go out. Now she will leap into the air and snatch any bird that is flying low to the ground ... and happily eat it. She is hysterical to see with feathers stuck to her face ... but i digress.

This poor little kamikaze is laying beside me looking, for all the world, like it's dead. Twitching like its going through death throes, wings and forked tail rigid and extended. Carefully picking it up by a wingtip i laid on top of the woodpile in hopes it might revive. First i see it's eyes rolling around in its head like a cartoon character (it must nave been seeing stars ... lots of 'em). Then it starts breathing. Hard. Must have really knocked the wind out of itself.

After lying on the black cover of the woodpile in the sun for a couple minutes, it finally woke up looking like it had just been disturbed from sleeping off a really good night out on the town. About an hour later, looking out the door, it still hadn't moved. Deciding to see if it was recovering i slid the patio door open and stepped out to see this ...