Ok, what does this kind of thing mean?
Last week I was nearly hit on the head by a superb looking parrot. I saw her and her mates take off like I have seen many times before. They were making that great, high chattering noise. I seem to remember thinking, gee they are getting close, then there was a woosh of good parrot driving and a blur of reds and greens past my eyes. It seemed barely past my nose. The closest, as Max would say “missed me by that much” and joined her mates swinging lightly on the leaves. They all kept chattering. Was it swooping? Maybe, but they don’t swoop that often. I just think she was joy riding
Later in the week, a very overweight pidgeon on his daily rounds, misjudged his angle of trajectory, crashed his way across a cafe table and headed straight for my elegantly (well, that’s my story) posed, coffee-laden arm. This path was guaranteed to achieve maximum splash-to-face ratio and the coffee, being the first for the day, was highly coveted. Anyway, there was a slow motion ”oh no” moment. Oh, no, no, no and then miraculously he missed me by a wing tip. Just like that he pulled out of his wobbling death roll and I’m not sure but…Did he wink at me when he went passed? I don’t know but is it possible that birds find this funny?
I know there is a superstition that if a bird (ahem) relieves itself on you it is good luck. That happened to me twice in one day a few years ago and really I don’t remember a big burst of luck being evident directly afterwards. Then again who can judge what luck is…I could have been in for something really nasty that was averted by said ‘bird packages’.
As a side note: I live under a Flying Fox flight path in summer. Earlier in the year I had a near miss with a particularly large flying fox that got confused. Remember I love them but there is an instinct that makes you want to avoid that sort of contact with the big, leathery fellows.
It has been a year of these strange feathered, leathered near collisions. I wonder what it all means?
Filed under: animals, birds, life, personal | Tagged: birdies, close calls, feathered friends, flying in formation
I don’t know, but if you see Tippi Hedren in the vicinity, I’d suggest you leave town …
To complicate things (as if you needed complications), I think that often it’s not just what happens to us but what we pay attention to that has meaning. You might want to analyze how you feel about these meetings: dread or adrenaline rush, signs of the Spirit Life or indicators that you should take a course in Australian wildlife, et cetera. You describe the parrot and the pigeon almost as if they were challenging you. Do you have a life change looming, that the birds and bats remind you of?
Fascinating entry on a form of fortune telling at least as old as Rome.
I’ve had the odd Flying Fox dip down a tad too low and been surprised to find a human outside in the cold pitch dark, of late lol. Do Flying Fox splotches have the same good luck attached to them as birds’ do ?
Just watched a little blackbird furiously bathing itself in the birdbath, even though it was rather chilly. A very thorough ablution, even under it’s wings, with it stopping occasionally to chirp at me – I think it was telling me to pass it the towel
James V,
Lol, exactly right. That Alfred Hitchcock movie did cross my mind.
lavenderbay,
Thank you for that wonderful insight. It is funny but there have been a few coincidences lately with people giving me congruent advice. I have to admit that the first thing that springs to mind when I think of birds is freedom and following my own path. That is the start of it but the meaning still seems hazy and incomplete. I’ll keep working on it.
Jayne,
Lol, I don’t know if Flying Fox poo has the same magic properties but I expect it must or should. I am glad I am not the only one that has these things happen. I suppose that the bats radar goes bung sometimes and suggests that a human is a nice little tree or something.
That is a beautiful tale about the blackbird. I can just imagine little carefully constructed birdy towels. Just gorgeous.
OK, but I draw the line at lace edging on the bird towels…or monograms
Jayne,
That’s a classic! Monogrammed bird towels. I can feel a Beatrix Potter moment coming on. Lol.