4:05 PM
I was on the phone in the living room, calling someone because I hadn't had anything to do until then. The PC upstairs is my sisters, and she's using it. Looking out the window there's a... bird approaching.
The bird hits the window, and I'm assuming it's nothing major. It didn't seem like too hard of a hit, and I thought the bird had flown away. Still, though, I said I had to go to the person on the phone, and went outside to check.
Things had not turned out well for the small, yellow bird that I found lying underneath the window, not moving. I was unsure of the type of the bird, but it was a small brownish bird with a yellow belly. The impact, going head first, must've broken its neck, and it seemed very much dead. It had no reaction to me, and I picked it up and, to the chagrin of my mother, took it inside to tell my sister. My mothers opinion on the bird was "Get it out of the house."
We (me and my sister) agreed that there wasn't much we could do, and that we could leave the bird outside, or bury it. Having images of the poor thing being eaten by insects (right away) was disheartening, and I felt that we should respect it by burying it. Some others would think it would've been the best idea to leave the thing alone in the first place, but I was unsure whether it was alive.
I dug a hole about a foot deep, still in my socks from the suddenness of the situation. and placed the bird inside, in a sort of fetal position. We covered up the hole, and, deciding that we didn't want it to be dug up by some sort of wildlife, planted chives over the hole. They'll be back next year, and may serve as a sort of headstone.
Dealing with the death of an animal seems to be a rite of passage in our society, sadly enough. The death of a pet, wildlife found half-alive and cared for, or just a short encounter with an animal, as I had, are things that are always unsettling. I've been exposed to things such as dead birds on the street, or small animals our cats have killed, but it's always disheartening.
Situations like this serve as a sort of depressing reminder of how humanity's expansion affects animals, but given what happened, it's hard to blame ourselves.
I am, however, printing out a silhouette of a sparrowhawk for the window.