Oh, Dear
I never thought of that … that’s very sad 😢
I’m not sure how much I like fireworks any more. And I’ll never be able to see them without thinking of this now. Perhaps we could find a different way of celebrating things; I like fireworks … but not so much I want animals to have heart-attacks and die — a few minutes of fun isn’t so much to give up in return for months (or even years, in some cases) of birdsong. Even ordinary ‘house’ (city/town dwelling) sparrows can live up to twenty years or more in the wild. And whilst their song might not be particularly melodic, they make up for it by having such fun characters. Take some time out to watch them when you can (in the spring or summer), they’re a lot of fun … and if you’re patient (and lucky), they can be brave enough to come right up to you and take food from your fingers or, in some cases, if you’re really calm, sit on your hand and eat it. Depending on how used they are to people, it can take time but, if you’re patient and let them get accustomed to you, they’ll get there eventually — after which you’ll have trouble keeping them off you, but … just like chasing clouds of butterflies
… being surrounded by sparrows sitting on and around you, is an uplifting experience — and I don’t know about anyone else but, after almost a year cooped up indoors, not seeing anyone in the flesh, come May, when the weather’s nice, even if I still can’t see anyone ¹, sitting out in the Sun, having the sparrows hop about my feet and beside me on the bench, eating out of my hands, landing on my head flitting back and forth, like they do, would be very welcome contact with another living thing that won’t try and bite me (like the foxes ² ).
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¹ Given the complete omnishambles that is the British government’s approach to the pandemic, I’m not counting on it.
² They’re not as vicious as the squirrels (which have always had it in for me, for some unfathomable reason ³ ), but they’re still nasty brutes — and they carry diseases … and the last thing I wanna do is have to make the choice between dying of some blood-borne infection or Covid caught in a hospital slap bang in the centre of ground zero on Plague Island! ⁴
³ Really, I have no idea what it is, but as soon as they see me, they all gang up on me and steal my food, if I have any, and/or just plain attack me
… no, really, it’s actually like that!
I don’t know if it’s because they’re all jonesing for crack or what
… but it started when I was a little boy and it hasn’t stopped since — and, as I’m pretty sure crack wasn’t a thing when I was that little, I suspect it’s something else altogether.
It mightn’t be so bad if the hedgehogs called me ‘Jungle Jim’ (or something), but they don’t *sigh*.
⁴ I can’t remember when it was now (late ‘90s? early/mid ‘00s?), but it was with no little astonishment … simultaneously coupled with the hollow laughter that accompanies that moment of “Of course. How could it possibly not have come to pass? It was inevitable really, just a matter of time” … that I read that it was official: more people were dying of untreatable infections (MRSA, C difficile, necrotising fascitis) they’d picked up whilst in hospital for routine treatment and operations than were killed on the roads.
And that was during a period when we still had something approaching almost relatively competent government — if we’ve still not got things under control by then ⁵, going to hospital might very well kill me!
⁵ And, after nine months, this lot haven’t, so what chance is there that they’ll have miraculously sorted it all out within half that time?
