without a thought
the bird and I
return home.

I was sitting outside reading, when there was a sudden dramatic kerfuffle in a nearby bush.

Out popped a tiny baby Crested Pigeon (Ocyphaps lophotes).
Followed closely by a large black currawong locked-on for the kill.

Now, despite them being a native bird to Australia, I am not a big fan of the Ocyphaps.
We have a metric tonne of them around our house. They are noisy with all that cooing-whooping, they shit all over the garden furniture, and along with the pesky minor birds they crowd out my spirit-amigoes the magpies and crimson rosellas.

So there is an argument here for not interfering. For letting nature take its course. For letting selection be natural. The currawong gets to feed its family and there is one less annoying pigeon to crap all over the place.

Instead, I sprung over, scooped her up in my hands and returned her to the small twig nest I found inside the bush. The currawong flew up to a nearby tree to reset and bide his time.

You see…. I was not separate from the drama playing out.
The pigeon, the currawong, and I were all in play.
I could have left things alone, I could have saved the bird.
In the moment we all played our part.
Everything else is just overthinking it.

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In the photo you can see mum sitting atop her baby, giving me the eye.