May 21, 2010

Saw an amazing thing today: There was a fresh bird feather on my balcony this morning. Guessing by the size of it, probably from a pigeon, of which there are far too many around. I dropped it off the balcony. It spun slowly down in a perfect spiral. Suddenly from nowhere, a bird darted out and caught the feather in its beak. As it flew away, it kept losing its grip, and the feather would begin to tumble down again, but each time, the bird would dart down after it, catch it again and begin flying off. This went on for about a minute, the bird dropping, darting, and re-catching the feather until it finally gave up when it got too close to the ground. The swiftness and precision of its flight was astonishing. Absolutely beautiful.