In The Biginning, There Was "Write"

And so I was told to write a “blog.” I wasn’t convinced that anyone would be interested in my swashbuckling tales of birding-as-bloodsport, but “they” said that “blogs” were “a good thing.” So thus did I march off to the office this fine morning to record some of my thoughts about the making of my most recent film.


But something happened along the way.


As I approached my office, a nondescript hulk on an unremarkable block in midtown Manhattan, I heard a yapping that most of us birders would recognize instantly, but that would be off the radar of non-birders. I looked around and, yup, there it was.


I’d never seen a bird so young that wasn’t still nest-bound. Some of its feathers were still follicular, and it seemed that about 25% of the bird’s bulk was its marsupial-like feet. Most striking, though, was the yellow-rimmed beak that forms a can’t-miss target when a bleary-eyed parent arrives at the nest with food. I’d never seen one still so vivid outside of a nest.


This House sparrow was days out of the nest, if not hours. It’s parents were hovering but unconcerned, and its sibling was hopping around inside of a doorway making the same loud demands.


Knowing that animals that age often haven’t yet learned fear, I sat down, gently pet its head, and soon picked the chick up. There we sat, eye-to-eye, faces inches apart. It peeped once in a while, I peeped back. Mom and Dad betrayed little concern. Cocky, over-confident New York City parents.


Eventually, I placed Junior in the same doorway as its nest-mate, and both went about the business of demanding food at the top of their tiny lungs.


One of those one-on-one moments with nature that we sometimes seek, rarely get, and cherish when we do...


Perhaps it was due to the exhaustion engendered by spending seven years on a film but, busy as I am in launching “my baby” out into the world, it seemed a portentous occurrence. Birth. New life. Springtime. Regurgitated worms. It’s all good.


So there: I blogged. And now that my “chick” is out fending for itself, I promise to start writing about some of the amazing adventures that making this film took me on.


Uh, MOSTLY that’s what I’ll write about...