Sunday morning in June, 6:30 am, watching the early birds get the peanuts on my balcony. Sparrows only at this hour; they tend to eat on the balcony rather than do “take out” like everyone else. One little sparrow, however, seems to have something wrong with her beak. I noticed it looked like something was stuck to it, but she didn’t seem in distress, I just figured she was a little sloppy. But then she started trying to “wipe” her beak on the ground, on the railing, on the window box edges, as if trying to get something very sticky off.

Of course I’m worried, I want to go pick her up and fix it, but of course that’s not possible. She is otherwise totally fine, it seems, and there’s no way I could catch her. But it brings back to mind other birds in distress I’ve encountered. For awhile I felt like the neighborhood bird medic, back when I lived in a townhouse in Pittsburgh. Since moving to Bethesda I haven’t had any bird dramas. Since Maryland, actually, since I can’t remember any in Gaithersburg either.

More sparrows at the balcony but none wiping their beaks so I will assume (for my own peace of mind) that she took care of the problem and has since been one of the sparrows that I see drinking and eating with no problems.

One last thing today–more bird dramatics later–there was a young titmouse at the railing. That’s the first time I’ve seen that. Often see sparrows fluttering and being fed, cardinals too.