Worm-eating Warbler

This little warbler - a warbler which I got a not very good look at, and an even worse photograph of, in West Virginia this past week - had a near death experience at our house this morning. He ran into the window at the back of the kitchen, the one that overlooks the creek way down at the bottom the hill. The window is a full story up, since the ground drops off behind the house and the *basement* is actually the ground floor back there. Anyhoo - it's rare for a bird to hit that window, but it did somehow. I went around back to see if it had flown away unscathed and found it lying on the ground sort of waggling its wings. For a while I had my doubts as it was doing the open mouth breathing thing that generally bodes ill, but after a bit it started breathing more normally and unclenched its feet and settled onto my fingertips. We stood there, he and I, contemplating the situation. Me thinking "do I have to drive this bird to the Wildlife Center?" and he probably thinking the birdy equivalent of "oh crap.". After it became apparent that he could perch, and his eyes looked fairly bright, I set him on a bit of the wisteria at the side of the house, in the sun. I checked on him after a little while and he was still perched there. Then I went for my morning walk and when I returned he was gone. I choose to believe he flew away, perhaps with a bit of a headache, but basically recovered. I think the fact that both his feet worked, and his head wasn't tilted to one side, and he wasn't wobbly, and his eyes were bright - are all indications that he was basically okay.

And mind you, prior to this I would have never imagined there might be WEWAs out in my woods. But I guess there are! I am rather sorry that he had to call my attention to his presence by nearly breaking himself, though.