I have a window on the landing of my steps leading up to the second floor of my house. The window is a large one, about 72" * 52" and displays a glorious view of my neighbors terra cotta tile roof. This is my favorite window in the whole house because before you reach the bottom step, if you lift your head to look out the window all you see is big blue sky and the occasional pudgy white cloud. For a moment, it feels like looking out into eternity and that your not about to step up, but to step off, although as you mount the steps one by one, the roof next door begins to bob into existence shattering the illusion saliently.
Yesterday I was heading upstairs to slip out of my work clothes and threw a customary glance towards the roof when some debris fluttering in the wind caught my eye. My first thought was "how the hell did trash get up on the damn roof?" and because of the color, my first assumption was that it was bark or an air plant or some such from the exotic greenery that we have around here and it had been blown about during one of our frequent summer storms. But something still didn't seem right, so I pressed my nose up against the glass and squinted, trying to force my eyes to focus beyond the screen an inch in front of my face. Then I realized what I was really seeing...a bird had apparently exploded on my neighbors roof. Bits and pieces of feathers everywhere and something that looked like the lower half of one wing that had been tossed aside in the melee.
So I hollered for Gabe to come up and take a look, where he informed me that a bird had not actually spontaneously combusted as it had initially appeared but had fallen prey to foul play. Some poor little birdie had been smashed and devoured as it was sunning it's little feathers; probably never knew what hit it. I'm going to post the picture when I get home. Yes, I took a picture...
UPDATE!!
It seems that since yesterday most of the chunks have blown off. You can still make out bits of grisle and such. Interestingly, when I was taking the photo, I looked down and to my surprise and slight dismay, I saw the poor doomed creature had expired on my lawn. I revise my earlier opinion from "Death Due to Ambush" to "Death Due to Fight to the Bitter End."
