Matilda Update

Even though last year I composed more posts than ever (185) in all my years of blogging,

I still ran out of time to post things from last summer before winter came etc.

So bear with me as I catch up a little bit here and there with some posts that were left behind!

So as a very brief recap on Matilda the pigeon, in case your new to my beloved blog;

At the beginning of last summer
(read about us finding her right here)
we found a baby bird in the middle of the road who clearly needed help
(she grew into this gorgeous creature)

We brought her home, intending to care for her a day or two or at least until she flew away.

But she ended up learning to fly and stayed with us...she stayed with us all summer...
(click right here to read a blog post about our days with her)

She'd come outside into the yard with us but never flew away,
she'd always come back into the house...

She was lovely and we did fall in love,

it was hard not to, click right here for one of my favorite moments with her.

I'll never see pigeons the same way again and now they'll forever be one of my favorite birds.

 (She was hands down one of my most favorite things to photograph that season...

so I just have to post these last remaining shots of her that I haven't shown you yet.)

She was bonded to us...we to her...
(click here for one of our most perfect day with her from all of last summer)

but as she got older we realized maybe staying with us wasn't the best thing for her,

as much as we didn't want to let her go, we wanted what was best for this wild heart of ours.

We got concerned when we clearly couldn't' leave the room for even 5 minutes without her panicking about where we were and than swooping all over the house frantically looking for us.

We were able to be with her a lot, but there would be a lot of times when we wouldn't be home
and she'd have to go in a cage, because we couldn't have her flying around unattended,
pooing where the bunnies were etc...
so we got more and more concerned and questioned if we could really give this wild bird
the best home even though setting her free felt impossibly mean and hard to do...

.

We ended up talking at length with a local bird rehabilitation expert,
And she explained that yes, Matilda was attached to us

but given the real chance between us and a real flock, she'd likely chose the birds.

Her coming outside with us and not flying away was not unusual,

we had no pigeons around our house for her to identify with...
we were her flock so if we lived in the house,
that's where she figured she was suppose to live too...
(click here to see a bunch more photos of our life with a pigeon in the house)

So we decided, long before winter arrived, to give her the best chance,
that we wouldn't feel good about keeping her
if we didn't give her a real honest try at being wild.
We agreed not to force her, if she decided to stay with us than she was welcome to,
that we'd fit her beautiful heart into the family if need be...

My parents, luckily, were at the time feeding a large group of pigeons,
so we brought Matilda over there to meet their flock and as soon as we let her out of the cage,
she went to the birds (read more about her introduction right here)
but when they flew away, she didn't know to follow...
so back to us she came and back home we went to try again the next day.

Each day she got more and more involved with the flock and on that 4th day
when the flock flew away into the horizon and setting sun, our Matilda flew with them.

I get emails from people now and than asking if we knew how she doing
and whether or not I knew if she survived Winter...
Trust me I was wondering too...
every single time I saw a pigeon my heart would give a little twinge!
I am SO beyond thrilled to finally give you all an update and say

YES, she is doing GREAT
She finally made an appearance at my parents just the other week
and guess what...she knew her name, ha ha!!!

Dearest Matilda,
you'll always be one of my very favorite memories & experiences XO
(She has for sure inspired a story of her very own which hopefully someday I'll share)