True story: This one's for the birds

Perhaps you've heard this song:

Be kind to your web-footed friends
For a duck may be somebody's mother

Yesterday, I got to put that to some practical use. On Monday, a bird flew into our computer lab at work. We tried to coax it out one of the doors, but it kept flying up high into the rafters. We tried crumbling up some animal crackers and leading a trail out the door, but like Wile E. Coyote trying to catch the Road Runner, the bird wouldn't fall for our plan.

Yesterday, the bird was obviously getting tired of our lab. He was flying lower, and frequently crashing into the many windows in an attempt to rejoin the outdoor world. Eventually, he headed toward one of the corners where a door was located, so we opened up the door. Again, he wouldn't fly out. Instead, he kept flying by the door.

Eventually, he was resting on a window ledge, still trying to crash through the window to escape. I snuck up on him with an empty trash can and mange to pin him against the window. Another person extracted the liner bag and took him out the door so he could be released outside. Everybody was happy not only that the bird was out of our lab, but that we didn't have to hurt him in the process.

Scouts should be friends to all living things, not just people. :-)