About Birds - Year 2

8/6/09

The day dawned delightfully cool. Seventy eight degrees! I was so pleased. Then, a bird crashed into my head.

After dropping Rich off at school, I headed for an unknown part of our neighborhood to take in some new sights on my morning walk. I parked opposite a shuttered elementary school building, took my umbrella and water bottle, and set out through a quiet residential part of Cerro Viento, then turned onto a main drag. Dry cleaners and corner stores with makeshift parking in front made the walk an obstacle course. Suddenly, THWAP!! Something hit my right ear, grazing my head with sharp scratches. I spun around, thinking someone was attacking me from behind, but…no one. A few seconds later, another WHOOSH by my head, and I saw the bird, alighting on a nearby rooftop. I yelled and waved my hands around my head as I walked on, cinching the suspicion of Panamanian passers-by that Americans are loco.

Another bird here in Panama has more pleasant associations. Soon after we moved in we were chatting with our French neighbors in their yard and noticed a large buzzard, hopping around in their yard. It clearly felt at home there as it pecked at bugs in the soil. Suddenly a car motor started, alarming the bird, but it gave a huge leap without ascending into flight. Jacques explained that the bird had a damaged wing or leg and could not fly. They had become fond of the poor gimpy bird and regularly fed it and talked to it. In time, we did, too.

A few weeks later, we heard our Panamanian next door neighbor arguing loudly in the street with our French neighbor. Juan had a rock in his hand and for a moment we thought he was going to throw it at Jacques! “No, no! Please, don’t hurt it” Jacques was saying. Juan said, “He’s a nuisance. He gets into our garbage – let me kill him.” “No, please.” “OK, but if he gets into my garbage again, that’s it.” The gimpy buzzard had long since quit the scene… hopping maniacally over the crest of the hill.

So here we are… North Americans (Panama canal builders) living between the French (failed Panama canal builders) and the Panamanians (current Panama canal owners) facing off in a diplomatic incident.