the call you were made to sing

I was just minding my own normal business, helping a friend get her toddler out the front door and in the carseat at the curb. It was a gorgeous day, the kind in early “fake” spring when you know more winter is still coming so you want to leave every window open and just be outside in the sunshine and warmth.

I sent them on their way, ready to run out the door on my own way, only to find two birds had flown into the house.

Yes, two birds, inside. And they were terrified.

Not only were they inside, they were in the entryway foyer which goes upstairs. And to make matters worse, at the peak of the foyer ceiling two stories up, there is a skylight that cuts up through to the roofline so that sunlight can come into the foyer from the opposite side of the house from where the front door is. It’s a brilliant touch the original homeowner added! But it made all of the typical ways of getting birds out of a home completely impossible. 

There was no way to gently herd them with a blanket out the door. There was no way to reach them with a broom and gently motion them towards the outlet. There was certainly no way to make it dark except for the path out… it was the sunniest of sunny days and they were in the most lit part of the house with no way of closing curtains or blinds to make it dark except for the exit.

So this is where it got desperate… From the second story bedroom windows, you can easily slip right out onto the mildly sloped roofline. So out I went, and scooted my way around to the eave that is closest to the taller roofline that the skylight is in. I was hoping against hope that somehow that roofline might come down low enough for me to get up onto it and then cover the skylight with a dark blanket so the birds wouldn’t be drawn up into it anymore. But alas, the roofline wasn’t reachable for me.

I started calling and texting anyone who cares about the house (my parents and neighbors) and anyone who cares about birds (friends and a local nature center).

The lady at the nature center suggested all the usual things, which I had already found online and just wouldn’t be possible in my predicament. But then she asked if I could get a photo of the birds and text it to her so she could identify the birds. Then I could look up the call of that particular species and play it on my phone out the front door.

They would hear the call they were made to sing and know the way to freedom.

And do you know what? It worked. One flew out within a couple minutes. The other inched down and still took some coaxing from a golf ball retriever gently tapping the glass (the only thing long enough to reach the top of the skylight). Even then, the second one stopped on the upstairs landing. Then flew straight into the glass of the upstairs foyer window and fell to the ground at the doorway. Then it flew out the front door just as able bodied as ever. 

Those sweet little, frightened, misguided birds went up into the sky light, they thought they were headed to freedom, but it was a trap. It looked like their home, but it wasn’t. And in their frenzy as they continually tried to get free through the skylight, they were terrified. And could not find their way home. 

I could have spent all my time with just as much frenetic activity, trying all the theories on how to get birds out of a house. But all it took was playing the call they were made to sing and they knew the way to freedom. It literally calmed them, centered them. And they knew the way home.

Oof. Even now, that gets me. How much do we do the same my friends? We think we’re headed home, but find ourselves trapped and terrified. When maybe all we have to do to in this instance to reorient and calm ourselves is to hear the song we were made to sing and all of a sudden we will know the way to freedom. We will know the way home.