Wacky Stuff

Frank and the Birds

September 25, 2000

Frank ran in and shook me awake. "You've got to come out here and see this," he cried!

I wasn't sure if I was still dreaming, but I followed him onto one of the balconies. All I could see was the bright light of the sun shining into the room. I had no idea what he was pointing to, nor did I particularly care. He threw my camera at me and told me to take some pictures of him. At this point, I figured that a) he must have been crazy, b) he must need some more sleep, c) I was still dreaming, or d) maybe he did see something that I couldn't see, because he had on his secret detect invisible goggles and I didn't. I wasn't sure what to say, so I just grabbed the camera and shot a few pictures. As I was turning away, I realized what he was talking about.

On the railing of the balcony was a bird. On closer inspection, it wasn't a pigeon (as you'd normally see on a railing of a balcony in New York), but it was some kind of cockatoo or cockatiel. It looked kind of cool, actually. Frank had been feeding them nuts and they were all over the place. They were wild, but quite beautiful. At one point, Frank went to point to something and one of the birds jumped up and landed on his out stretched arm. It certainly startled me, and I think it scared the dickens out of Frank!