my new friend

This morning, I was sitting at the bar, reading something at the computer, when I heard a loud "thump" behind me. This being a rural area, the younger birds seem to be quite naive about windows, so the thud of birds hitting one of the windows on the house is fairly regular - one or two a day. I got up to go see if the bird made it, and found a young bird that turned out to be a Grace's warbler flat on it's back, feet in the air, breathing rapidly. I waited several minutes while the poor wee bird's breathing slowed, but it still could not orient itself. I sat on a nearby door sill to allow it a few more minutes, right next to my new friend here. I noticed movement beside me and turned to see this lovely mantis crawling up the door frame:



After a minute or so, I went over to the bird, and turned it over. As soon as it was righted, it flew to a nearby tree to continue recovering from the collision with the window. You might recall that last year, my parents and I rescued a flammulated owl from a similar collision. We rarely have birds thud into the windows at home in the northwest, but here it seems to be a regular occurence. At least the bird survived it, and I identified it as a Grace's warbler from some of mom's birding books. Then, I went inside for the camera, to get a picture of my new insect buddy.