Mr. Bird's Neighbourhood

B flew off again yesterday, this time toward the neighbours whose yard backs onto our yard. He got excited and flew off farther than usual, since he usually curves back around so that he never strays too far from the edge of our yard. Far enough so that I couldn't see him. Hate when that happens.

So I grab my shoes, keys and C to trek off to the next street to find him. The scary part is that I have to walk (really, I was shuffling as fast as I could, but smoothly enough so that C wouldn't fall) to the cross-street in order to get to the parallel street that the other houses are on. When I go that far from the house, I can't hear B anymore, so I get worried he can't hear us either. Then I worry that he might think we disappeared, fly around in a panic looking for us, and by the time I get there, it's impossible to find him since he's already moved.

Well, thankfully that didn't happen. I finally get to the next street, and go down listening house by house until I figure which house his calls sound closest to, but I still can't see him. I figure he's in the neighbour's backyard. So I go to their front door to ring the bell and while I'm waiting for them to answer the door, B comes flying out around to the front of the house!!

I couldn't believe it! He was so smart to know to fly around to us, even when he was probably worried, not having seen us for 5 whole minutes. He lands on an upstairs window ledge, so from there, I just ask B to fly on down to us so we can walk back home. He got a bit of a lecture about not going so far next time, a bit of a lesson about what street we were on in case it happened again, and a bit more praise for being so smart to fly around the house to the front even though he couldn't see us, for being so good to come so quickly and staying put the whole time in between. C was also very well-behaved and calm the whole time, sitting on my hand and making contact calls to B once in a while to help. Some passersby commented on the birds, how beautiful they were, with some curious questions about whether they could fly, fly away, and so on. I'm thinking about taking them for more walks while it's seasonable.

B seems to be getting more and more independent, and I'm getting the sense that he wants to explore the neighbourhood and venture into the world beyond. He also seems more responsible, being less stubborn about sitting somewhere unreachable just because he can, while me and C are waiting and worrying. Maybe he listened the last time I lectured him about not making his mummy worry, and about how much better it was to come back sooner so that everyone can have fun, not just him.

The photo is from the other day, but doesn't he look so incorrigible?