Moment 69 - Bird

It was one of those rarest moment when I encountered something extraordinary.  I was spending my whole afternoon visiting places, looking for some fun, and working with my camera.  My last stop was at the beach.

Since the sun was still bright, I decided to walk along the sea shore. At first, the sand on the beach all looked the same.  All of a sudden, a movement caught my attention. And to my surprise, there was a bird struggling to stretch its wings wanting to fly.

As I came closer to the bird, the more it persisted to stay away from me.  It caught me by surprise when it hopped towards the sea. It was on this moment when I saw that it has a missing leg. And though it proved to be difficult to hurriedly escape, by the mere presence of a threat, the bird did not mind if the waiting water would be a suicidal means of escape.

And true enough. In its effort to escape from me, the bird struggled hard the moment it landed on the water. It tried to flap its wings but to no avail. I hurriedly ran after it and immediately lifted the bird from drowning.  The moment I got hold of the bird, I learned that it was still young.  I do not know if it was just learning how to fly and eventually reached the shore trying to learn flying.

After some time, I freed the bird. This time, its effort to stay away from me was minimal due to its wet state.  I tried to keep my distance but I still had my eyes on it, hoping it can have its much needed rest and to regain its strength.  Some minutes afterwards, a dog came towards our direction and with its strong sniff, the dog found the bird and began barking.  The barks of the dog caught the attention of the children who lived nearby and they immediately ran towards our direction.


The little boy caught the bird and I thought it would be a good idea to let the children keep the bird because eventually they can take good care of it. As time passed by, they joyfully played with the bird. The little boy tried to push the bird, as if he was trying to tell the bird to fly away. And I do not know if it was the kind of moment the bird had been waiting for. We were caught by surprise when it hopped away from us, spread its wings and flew away. All of us could not believe what had happened and the bird leave us smiling.