Books by Ian Rogers
Books by Ian Rogers
A dog story about Tasha
I wrote in my blog ‛Life and Death in the Garden’ about some sad incidents with wildlife trapped inside Fruit cages or tangled in the netting. Today as I prepared breakfast, I looked up the garden and saw four small brown birds outside the raspberry cage. They repeatedly fluttered up the outside of the netting, sometimes clung to it for a few seconds and then dropped back to the ground. I walked up to investigate and found three young sparrows inside the raspberry cage. I wondered how on earth they’d got in but my priority was to get them out.
The edge of the netting was held down an old iron pole laid on the grass. I took the pole away and used a wooden prop to raise the net and make a gap - an escape route- for the birds. Naturally they had retreated into the furthest raspberry canes so I had to walk round the outside and clap my hands to drive them towards the opening. They flew out - all but one. As an afterthought to building the raspberry cage I had added an extension to cover a red currant bush. This meant robbing some net from the raspberry cage end wall to form a bigger roof, leaving a foot or so of net near the ground, the remnant of the now useless dividing wall.
The one pesky sparrow flew into the red currant area instead of out to freedom. I circled further round the outside and clapped my hands to drive it back through the raspberries and out of the opening. Instead of flying up and over the remnant of net - the way it had come - it fluttered along the ground and stuck its head threw the mesh, then clung with its feet, trapped. Fortunately I have disentangled other birds - with mixed success. I walked round to the bird, lifted more of the net skirt, reached in and took the completely passive bird gently in one hand. Its head came out of the mesh easily - it just hadn’t known to go backwards, towards the perceived threat.
I lifted one of its feet off the net with a gentle finger but saw the other foot clench even tighter round the net. Birds have a very fragile legs and toes. I knew better to try and force its foot open. I gambled that if I opened my hand, it would let go of the net and fly - which it did. Away from me, over the partition and out of the raspberry cage. Success! And what a pleasure it was to hold this little bird securely for a moment, making intimate contact with an untouchable wild thing.
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