Mr. Bird won't come home

As the sun rose this morning, David was standing on Poinsettia Drive, watching the rooftop where Mr. Bird spent the night.

A woman with a dog greeted him: "Where've you been? I've been here since 6 a.m."

Within a half hour, Sophia, our bird-crazy neighbor, joined him. Soon there were people on bikes, kids in strollers, dog-walkers and various neighbors passing along the saga of how Mr. Bird had left his home to follow the new peacocks, who had since flown westward.

The previous day, we learned, Sophia had "led" Mr. Bird all the way from 15th Avenue east to the rooftop where he spent the night. This spectacle had developed a crowd and all the residents of that street were rooting for Sophia to get our bird back home.

This morning, I joined the throng about 7:30 a.m., with coffee for David.

Finally Mr. Bird hopped off the roof and headed for the cul de sac where the road ends because of the canal that divides that neighborhood from ours.

The assembled group tried to herd him down the street; he did everything he could to return to that cul de sac. Three times we blocked his way so he flew up on rooftops and then hopped from roof to roof to go back to the cul de sac. When he came down from these roofs, we continued our herding action. But he always evaded us.

I was the chief bird herder. It was very difficult. It was like a playground game, where somebody tries to get around you and you run from side to side trying to figure out how to prevent them from moving forward. Only my playmate could fly.

I finally decided that I was not going to succeed in getting him to 18th Street. At one point, I had him as far as the start of the Spanish church property, but he got around me and ended up halfway down that block again.

I gave up after about two hours, deciding that he IS, after all, a wild bird. If he has decided to move on, we will be very sad, but we don't own him.

He is free, and that's one thing we've always loved about him.