My House of Wings

RC & ME
By Pat Pipan

RC, first son of Kia & George Solomon Eclectus, was gift to my partner. Not yet winged, I put him outside for sun. Time to feed again, I went to a empty cage. In a state of shock, I just stood there thinking this can’t be real - He Is Gone… I must have put him somewhere else. Not! Sick to my stomach I looked for RC for two days --sun up to sun down. How am I going to tell Bob, I just lost his baby. Me, who should no better lost a baby.

The third day, at day-break, I am out looking for RC, once again. I think I hear him, he is far, but I hear him. I ran into the woods-- I did hear him, but I can’t see him. Finally, I spotted him and he got silent. I understood why… looking higher I saw a hawk circling. That’s why! He was at tree top. He didn’t seem to know how to fly down, he tried when he saw me. He just could not get it. It started to rain, accompanied by a lot of wind. I heard birds can’t fly wet (myth debunked)! RC could fly just fine. He followed me home tree-top to tree-top, how was I going to do this????

The next morning, he let the neighborhood know he was hungry. The buds I saw him eating, weren’t enough. I put out cages, his parents, nothing seemed to work. I thought “microwave,” he always reacted to the microwave, because he knew he was going to be fed. The beeping sound did it. He started buzzing the house. He disappeared again and it got silent.

Once again, I saw why, the hawks were circling over-head. Not eating for several days, my mind went back to Bob. He usually checks in by now. I thought, PLEASE DON’T CALL, PLEASE DON’T CALL… Bob called… I tried to sound normal. The first thing he said was, “what’s wrong?”. I lost it and told him. He said he was on his way down after work to help.

Mid-day RC started buzzing the house again. This time he was lower and landed on my neighbor’s roof. With a ladder and a net at the ready, a few more tries and he landed on my roof. He was just out of reach. I remembered my net had an extension on it. After locking it in, I GOT HIM!!!!!
He was more scared than happy. After he calmed down, I clipped his wings (real fast), and fed him (typical male--food is what did it). RC fell asleep in my arms………..

There’s No Place Like Home…