Cora Cockatiel - Part Three - Cora is Frightened

Cora Cockatiel - Part Three - 

Cora is Frightened 

In fact, Cora was not that far away. At first, when she flew out of the cage, it was so exciting!  The sun was warm and so very bright.  There was not a whisper of wind. The big tree was farther away, and taller, than she had thought. Just as she settled on an inner branch, a hawk streaked past her so close to her it shook the branch she was on. She hissed and screamed loudly in fright, and took quick sideways steps deeper into the tree. Trembling, she called to Wally, but he couldn’t hear her.  None of her friends were there. Mr. and Mrs. Winkle weren’t there.  Cora was away from her flock. She was paralyzed with fear. She didn’t want to fly out into that wonderful big sky for fear that the hawk would be waiting. But she wanted to go home.

Cora had been raised and had learned to fly within the bounds of a large and beautiful cage. Short fluttering back and forth flying. Cora really wanted to fly like eagles soaring high in the sky.  She learned only what she had been taught by her elders.

In the first cage, only a small and modest one, there had been small spaces for nesting boxes at the back. And as the flock grew, so did the need for space. One day, Mr. Winkle brought home a grand new cage pulled by his old green truck. Attached to the back of the criss-cross of cage wires was a wonderful birdhouse that looked just like Mr. and Mrs. Winkle’s house. Their beautiful flock of white and grey and yellow cockatiels, with their families, would have a new home.

All the cockatiels screamed and squawked in great excitement when they were transferred from the old cramped cage to this grand new one.  Mrs. Winkle put tall plants and giant sunflowers in the cage. Mr. Winkle planted strawberry vines that climbed up the wires. They could climb on and perch in the tall plants, and in the fall they had fresh sunflower seeds to eat.  There were tall, rusty grasses in great urns that gave them some seeds to eat and feed their little ones.  The roof was of a finer mesh netting that let the sun and the breeze in.  On a rainy day, Mr. Winkle could roll a cover over it to keep the flock dry. The cockatiels loved their new home.

In one corner, with tall sunflowers on either side, were two rocking chairs. Facing out into the side of the small farm, they could watch fields of yellow mustard and blue flax in the early summer, and golden rows of grain in the fall.  At night, the cockatiels went into their warm house and their night-time perches.  Nesting boxes,kept clean, were always ready for the mating pairs of cockatiels.

The Winkles came out to the bird cage every morning after breakfast. Mr. Winkle chewed his unlit pipe and read his morning newspaper; Mrs. Winkle joined him with her latest book.  There they would sit in the early morning sunshine with their birds flocking all around them. The rocking chairs were never dirty as Cora and Wally, the most senior birds, instructed all the other birds to only fly into that corner if Mr. and Mrs. Winkle were there in the morning.  Mr. and Mrs. Winkle would dust the rocking chairs each day. Each time the cage was cleaned, so were the rocking chairs.

Occasionally, one of the new young hatchlings would hop from branch to cage wall to branch, just a tiny bit at a time edging over to one of the chairs.  Just as he or she was about to hop onto the back of the chairs, Wally or Cora would send a shrill whistle 'Get off! Get off!’ sending the offending teenager scurrying back to the flock.  

Cora thought about all of these things while she shivered in the tree. But as the sun set, she resigned herself to staying still in the tree until morning.  Cora found a crevice in the trunk of the big tree keeping her back against it's rough trunk. When wild birds had visited the cage, she had asked them many questions. Then she had only been curious about their safety without a cage around them. Now, their twittering, chirping answers were the only things she had to keep herself safe.

She watched for the old cat that roamed the yard.  He prowled and roamed at night, and many times had tried to get into the big bird cage.  She didn’t think that he spotted her when she flew.  For once she wished she was pearl grey like Wally.  There were night owls that wouldn't have minded a bright yellow snack. At night Cora didn’t think she’d have to worry about eagles or hawks, but she kept quiet and hidden in the tree. 

When she realized that she would be away from the flock and alone all night, Cora shivered again.  She decided she really didn't want to soar like the eagles, or take long trips like the geese.  She just wanted to go home.  She was sure that when morning came and Mr. and Mrs. Winkle came to sit in their morning chairs, she could fly down and return home.  Cora tucked her head under her wing and slept.

*****

From Answers.com to question about predators of cockatiels:

"Cockatiels are parrots and, like all parrots, they have two main means of escaping predators.

They tend to fly in flocks, which provides them some protection, as there is safety in numbers. All members of the parrot family fly erratically.  This makes it more difficult for predators such as hawks to catch them.  Hawks soar and fly smoothly but they cannot follow the erratic path of a typical parrot."

“Fear is the foundation of safety.”

~ Tertullian