The Jackdaw

I frequently post photos of our two dogs on Facebook and often get comments like, “Sweet little doggies!!” but one morning, a few years ago, Merlot along with her half-sister Ruffles and Millie (the fat cat), disgraced themselves.

It started out as a peaceful Good Friday morning until a Jackdaw, that had decided to nest in our chimney, lost its footing and came plummeting down the flue to suddenly appear in the fireplace in an explosion of soot and feathers.

It was a shock for me but more of a shock for the bird when it realised, after struggling to stand up and shake the soot from its feathers, that it was being eyed up by two Patterdale Terriers.

The Jackdaw leapt across the hearth and launched into flight knocking down ornaments, plants, photos and anything else that dared to get in its way. All this commotion was found to be very exciting by Merlot and Ruffles who both decided it was obviously a fantastic game they should be part of. Consequently, they too started to charge around the room in demolition derby mode, ricocheting from table to chair and snapping at the air whenever they came close to the poor bewildered bird. I’m sure the Jackdaw must have though it had fallen into hell and was being pursued by demons.

I couldn’t let them have all the fun and by this point I was also rushing around the room shouting at Merlot and Ruffles and not knowing whether to catch the dogs or the bird first. Eventually the winged destroyer came to rest in the window, pushing two more figurines to the floor as it did so. Ah! I though, I’ll just open the window and it will fly out.

With the dogs still in full dance I slowly reached to open the window only to realise the windows at the front of the house do not open other than the small quarter light at the top. The bird was not impressed.

Then my plan formulated itself, get the dogs into the kitchen then catch the Jackdaw and release it, from the backdoor, into the garden.

Step one was surprisingly easy, and I quickly managed to get the dogs moved out of the way and into the kitchen. I then re-opened the door to where the bird was. I’m glad my reflexes are reasonably quick because I had to duck as a sooty comet streaked past my head and did a lap of the kitchen before flying into the utility room where it startled Millie the fat cat who was asleep on top of the boiler. She also thought, “this is fantastic game I should be part of” and started leaping at the unfortunate bird. This of course brought the two dogs hurtling from the kitchen into the utility room and they, once again, started their antics.

By this time the Jackdaw had decided it was a good idea to start leaving its calling card in the form of expertly aimed jets of guano. Millie then leapt at the bird again and landed with her claws into a coat on the coat -rail and in doing so knocked down a straw hat which landed upside down in her bowl of drinking water. A carved wooden fish also dived from the windowsill, into her biscuit bowl, as the Jackdaw squeezed behind it.

Eventually, I managed to get the cat and dogs under control. I then threw a towel over the Jackdaw, picked it up and released it into the back garden. It flew off, circled the garden. Then, on spying the chimney it had fallen down, returned to it and perched on the chimney pot. My heart sank as it tipped its whole body forward to stare down into the sooty abyss …

Marek Szczepanek, CC BY-SA 3.0 <http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/>, via Wikimedia Commons