Yesterday I heard a loud thud against one of the windows. From long experience I immediately knew what it was. A bird had become disoriented and tried to fly into the TV room. I went to the window, looked out, and sure enough there it was -- a wood thrush, sitting stunned on the ground.
This shouldn't happen. The window opens on deep forest, not the sky, and the glass panes are small with prominent frames. Still, there's a reason that they talk about "birdbrains".
Of course I grabbed a camera and rushed out to get a picture before the poor thing could recover and fly off. Here's a shot I took from about six inches away.
Back inside, I was uploading the images to my computer when I heard a commotion and fluttering from where the bird had been sitting. I rushed to the window to see my neighbor's dog running off with something in his mouth. The thrush was nowhere in sight.
There is an outside possibility that it got away -- I didn't get a good look at what the dog was carrying -- but it is probably safe to assume that yesterday we had a small death on the mountain.
