Rhonda Bracey: At Random

Why do birds fly in to windows? Is it the light? The reflection? Or some kamikaze death wish?

The other day we were working in our home office which overlooks the back yard, when we heard a thump on the kitchen window (across the open plan room). I looked out and this little New Holland Honeyeater was lying very dazed on the paving. He (or she… I can’t tell the sex of these birds!) picked himself up—sort of—and sat/squatted on his haunches for close to an hour looking very sorry for himself. I wondered if he was going to live. The temptation was to go out and pick him up, but that would only traumatise him even more. So I didn’t. But I was still concerned about him. When I went to open the back door, he got enough of a fright to flap his little wings and fly off to a tree halfway down the yard.

I hope he survived. But if he did, I bet he had a VERY sore head. Poor thing.

One of friends had a birthday, so six of us went out to dinner on Monday night to the only restaurant open in town. Nice evening, good BYO wines, VERY ordinary food.

As we were about to leave, some of our group got talking to a large group at a nearby table. They were walkers from a big fundraising walk for motor neurone disease (MND), and Ken Judge, the ex-West Coast Eagles coach was with them. Seems they’re walking from Perth to Albany, and Monday night they’d made it to Bridgetown.

Having seen a work colleague go through the early stages of this debilitating disease some years ago, I happily handed over a donation.