More encounters with Nature

Today, just as I was arriving home from class, I found a finch rolling and flopping on the sidewalk. He seems to have a broken something, either wing or spine or perhaps even something neurological. I suppose he probably flew into a window.

I have always wanted to be like those girls from fairy tales to whom forest creatures flock* and, much to my delight, my moth adventure was somewhat in that vein. Unfortunately, though, the flopping finch was even more terrorized when I picked him up to move him under a bush. He quieted down somewhat after discovering that resistance was futile, and it was amazing to feel his heart beating under his soft feathers. His bones were so delicate, too. I wanted to help and looked on the internet for information about rolling/flopping finches but didn't find much, other than that bones must be set immediately and that I should call animal control. I figured that animal control probably doesn't care about a finch. I also figured that I'd give him a heart attack if I tried to mess with him too much.

I would keep him as a pet, except he's old enough that he'd probably hate me for the rest of his life. Oh, Nature...

Anyway, it is rather strange to have found two injured flying creatures in three days. Perhaps it is a sign?

*And I haven't quite given up on my plan to keep a carrier pigeon/owl in my attic this year...

And an update: I checked on him around 6:30 pm and he was nowhere to be found. I hope something hasn't eaten him and that he managed to fix whatever was amiss.

Eumorpha pandorus

I found a beautiful moth yesterday. It was green and cream, and very large--on the order of a several inch wingspan. I almost never see large bugs, though I know they're around, so it was pretty exciting.

This moth was fluttering about confusedly around 11:30 am, clearly not moth time. I followed him around for a while until he came to rest on the ground, and eventually picked him up to move him to another, less-trafficked, area. I then spent a long while looking at him (and expecting him to fly away) and talking to him. When I got up I realized that someone was sitting on the bench next to me and listening to me talk to said moth for several minutes. Oh well...

The moth was still there later in the afternoon when I came back, so I'm sure he wasn't well, though I never would have had the chance to see him if he were. (I am assuming this was a 'he,' though I know next to nothing about moths, and know even less about their possible sexual dimorphism. Somehow I think the females are differently colored. I am probably wrong.) He was soft, and wonderfully clingy in a way that small, live animals I try to pick up almost never are. They usually are squealing in paroxysms of fear, actually, and occasionally trying to bite me. But this moth didn't want to leave my hand, and though he was probably trying to avoid being eaten by some other creature it was so lovely to have an interaction with nature where nature wasn't trying to run away.

The moth made my day. It's always refreshing to see something existing so wholly outside of my world, with real concerns and not silly ones like organic chemistry. Which I will go study. Now. Well, maybe after I eat some cookies...



Sorry that the pictures aren't great, by the way. I took them with my phone's camera so the definition isn't superb.