Always look for the helpers
January 13, 2017 7:48 AM Subscribe
A rancher helps a frozen finch [SLYT] NB: the beginning might be a bit cringey, but nothing gruesome happens...
There's a whole flock of those finches wintering in a bush in my apartment complex. They all huddle together in big clumps and it's so cute. It's very hard to look with my eyes and not my hands because they're just so round and fluffy. When it snows it makes like a little igloo home for them while they empty the bird feeders in the neighborhood.
posted by 80 Cats in a Dog Suit at 8:22 AM on January 13, 2017 [6 favorites]
posted by 80 Cats in a Dog Suit at 8:22 AM on January 13, 2017 [6 favorites]
Thus is revealed the grusomeness of steel perchs.
posted by Pembquist at 8:44 AM on January 13, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by Pembquist at 8:44 AM on January 13, 2017 [3 favorites]
I like birds. I like people who are kind. I like this video.
posted by Fizz at 10:00 AM on January 13, 2017 [11 favorites]
posted by Fizz at 10:00 AM on January 13, 2017 [11 favorites]
When the rancher's mustache came into view, I instantly imagined it was Sam Elliott helping the little bird escape. "Sometimes there's a man......sometimes there's a man, and I won't say a hero, because what's a hero?" (Why, it's this guy, freeing a finch with his warm hands and breath!)
posted by but no cigar at 10:21 AM on January 13, 2017 [9 favorites]
posted by but no cigar at 10:21 AM on January 13, 2017 [9 favorites]
"There we go little buddy.. go ahead and fly away."
OK, perhaps I am feeling a little sentimental today, but that brought a tear to my eye.
posted by schmopera at 12:11 PM on January 13, 2017 [8 favorites]
OK, perhaps I am feeling a little sentimental today, but that brought a tear to my eye.
posted by schmopera at 12:11 PM on January 13, 2017 [8 favorites]
I don't know when I've seen anything sweeter than a mustachioed rancher gently blowing on a finch's feet to warm them.
posted by TheNudeApe at 12:57 PM on January 13, 2017 [9 favorites]
posted by TheNudeApe at 12:57 PM on January 13, 2017 [9 favorites]
No I was NOT just breathing heavily onto my screen. You were.
posted by allthinky at 2:16 PM on January 13, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by allthinky at 2:16 PM on January 13, 2017 [2 favorites]
If there's a better way to start the weekend here in frozen Iowa, I'd like to see it.
Diane Ackerman, in an essay about monarch migrations, describes researchers warming butterflies by cupping their hands around them and breathing on them until they can fly up to join the masses in the trees above.
I read that 25 years ago as an undergrad and thought it both beautiful and maybe a bit precious. But then one morning a few years later, at the start of an unusual cold snap, a big, gorgeous butterfly was grounded right in the middle of a busy campus sidewalk. It probably had seconds until it was stomped. So I tried that trick. It worked. It was so great. I opened my hands, and a butterfly flew out and up, up, away. A pair of onlookers gasped. I swear on my life this is true.
That might be the best, most important use I've ever made of all that reading.
posted by Caxton1476 at 5:27 PM on January 13, 2017 [12 favorites]
Diane Ackerman, in an essay about monarch migrations, describes researchers warming butterflies by cupping their hands around them and breathing on them until they can fly up to join the masses in the trees above.
I read that 25 years ago as an undergrad and thought it both beautiful and maybe a bit precious. But then one morning a few years later, at the start of an unusual cold snap, a big, gorgeous butterfly was grounded right in the middle of a busy campus sidewalk. It probably had seconds until it was stomped. So I tried that trick. It worked. It was so great. I opened my hands, and a butterfly flew out and up, up, away. A pair of onlookers gasped. I swear on my life this is true.
That might be the best, most important use I've ever made of all that reading.
posted by Caxton1476 at 5:27 PM on January 13, 2017 [12 favorites]
A couple of summers ago I came across a similar bird lying in the grass unable to move.
I picked it up and saw that it was wrapped securely with a spider web, which it had flown through.
So I carefully unwrapped it, and released it to fly away. I swear it returned to a nearby tree and thanked me.
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 12:56 PM on January 14, 2017 [3 favorites]
I picked it up and saw that it was wrapped securely with a spider web, which it had flown through.
So I carefully unwrapped it, and released it to fly away. I swear it returned to a nearby tree and thanked me.
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 12:56 PM on January 14, 2017 [3 favorites]
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posted by jenjenc at 7:54 AM on January 13, 2017 [6 favorites]