Roadkill

Earlier this month, I was driving down Hampden Ave (in south Denver) on my way to a high school visit when I noticed two large birds feasting on some roadkill in the middle of the road. As I approached the birds, I stepped on my brakes because they were greedily eating their breakfast rather than paying attention to approaching traffic. One of the birds flew out of my path just in time... the other wasn't so quick and decided to fly directly into my path. I slammed directly into the poor thing. Of course I felt terrible about hitting the bird! However, within a few miles, I'd forgotten about tragedy.

I continued driving for another 10 miles when I stopped for gas. After pumping the gas and washing my back window, I remembered the bird and thought I should check for feathers in the grill. Before I even got around to the front of the vehicle, I could see a large wing sticking out of the front of the car. As I came around to the front, I was greeted by a whole pigeon stuck in my grill... and he was still alive, blinking back at me!!

At first, I laughed, but I quickly realized that I would have to do something about this live bird, that I couldn't just leave him to die in the grill of my car. What was I going to do?! There was a nice man pumping gas next to me, so I frantically went over to him, told him I hit a bird that was still alive and stuck in my grill. As he came around to the front of the car, his eyes got huge and he admitted that he'd never seen anything like that before. He proceeded to grab a handfull of paper towels, which he used to protect his hands from the pigeon. The poor bird was so wedged into the spot, it took my new friend at least 5 minutes to loosen the pigeon from its spot. The bird was obviously hurt as bird seed started to fall out of his insides. Yuck, I know.

Eventually, the guy was able to completely remove the bird, which dropped to the ground and scurried under my car. I introduced myself to Brian, thanked him for helping me and drove away with tears rolling down my cheeks. Even though it was just a pigeon, I couldn't help but feel sad for the poor little guy.