the visitor

We had a little visitor last night. A very small one. Paul was watching tv and kept hearing a knock if you will on the window. He figured it was the dog - but he eventually barks. He got up to check and opened the door and something flew by. He figured it was a moth, but then realized it was a bird. It kept trying to fly through the window so he carefully swooped him up in a towel and put him in a box. The bird looked okay, but Paul figured something had to be wrong since he kept hitting the window over and over. We have a friend that worked for the aviary so he called her for advice and after some discussion, we left him in the dark box with airholes, some water and soaked dog food and the towel. He was beautiful brownish gray with lots of yellow. She thought he might be a finch or a solitary virelo. I tried to get a couple pictures but neither turned out due to the darkness of the box and I didn't want to scare him with the flash. This morning we got the kids and took the box to the porch and opened the lid and he promptly flew right up to our tall pine tree. He pouffed all his feathers out and looked three time as big. It reminded me of the picture I've seen of "the mad bluebird" that is pouffed out sitting on a barbed wire. I guess he just wanted a warmer place to sleep for the night.