So I'm going down the road enjoying the
brilliant sunset over the rolling vanguard of the
Pennsylvania mountains,
thinking this exit- somewhere near this
exit (York Springs) I could see finding a house..when
up out of the weeds
come two blackbirds, before I can blink one
has gone over the back of my car the other in front
WHACK off my
windshield and in my rearview I see it
tumbling off the road onto the median.
And I drive on thinking, that bird is dead and there is
a bit of yellow spray on my windshield that won't wash
off but it nags me,
what if its still alive I could put it out of its
misery, or if somehow it seems only a bit hurt, I could
get it to the AARK foundation,
which recuperates injured wild animals so finally it
gets to me and I turn around. The median is narrow- a
bit of pavement and a
guard rail, so I'm scanning as I fly along back- but I
remember basically where I was. I get off and loop back
again at the York Springs exit, not having spotted it yet.
I retrace my route and the weeds look familiar on my
right, and there it is, a clump of black, on my left. I
pull off. The shoulder is
narrow, and drops off to my right into a little valley
of a burbling brook (source- the York springs?), the
valley filled with purple and
white wild flowers- and a deer leaps! White tail held
high behind it as it arcs through the weeds and
wildflowers. Then I am back
opposite the bird and I am waiting for a break in
traffic to cross to it. I get there, and its staring
unseeing, I believe, and I gingerly
try to roll it over with my foot, but it keeps wanting
to roll back, but finally I see there are guts spilling
out, and I had no reaction
like life from it, so I cross back over and drive on.
And wonder what the first blackbird thought happened to
its companion? Did it think? Did it mourn? Did it come
back looking? At
the next gas station I find bird organs clinging just
under the front edge of my hood, and I take a paper
towel to them. And I'm glad
it was a blackbird and not that deer I hit. Heather and
I had recently talked about birds, and how its too bad
they aren't smart
enough to achieve a little altitude over roads..