These two dunnocks get more encumbered by their tumours every day. My cousin Janine asked her (our?) cousin who is a veterinary dermatologist and she said tumours. Bird expert Neil says Avian Pox can cause such growths. I feel so moved as they hop about, eating. I think that in both the growth originates in the eye, so they are half blind. I call the top one Lopsy, for Cyclops, and the bottom one Flopsy.
Flopsy seems to like being close to me. If I sit in the garden, she comes close and feeds right at my feet or next to where I am sitting on the ground. I think that my presence means there are no starlings, jays, magpies or squirrels. She is almost unbalanced by the hanging growth and when it swings at her as she pecks, she sometimes jumps back in shock, as though afraid of it. The unseen weight banging at her breast.
Yesterday, she lay down on the metal table to sunbathe as I was about to go in. I stood still, not wanting to disturb a rare moment of comfort for her. I waited as she settled, rubbing her chest against the warmth of the table's surface, slightly opening her wings, flicking her tail in pleasure and then relaxing. I waited until a leaf falling from the lilac startled her and she rose, somewhat unsteadily.
Later, I saw her right outside the back door. She sat there and I sat with her before going out to check the bonsais. When I returned, she was on the step and scuttled into a corner. There I found her body this morning.
Lopsy was still around and I saw little Baldy.
They will not live long, these other two birds, Lopsy and Baldy, and I dread to think of the pain. But while they are here, I step carefully, attentively, compassionately, and my heart heaves with hurt.
A sad thing. You have shown the dunnocks kindness. xx