Everyone who follows my blog knows that I love birds. I spend much of my free time watching them in my garden and in the wild. What I do not have, is a pet bird, unless you count the Cape Wagtail that cheekily enters my house and screams for cheese or the sugarbirds that do not fly away when we fill the sugarwater feeder.

There is a scary movie called “The Birds”. I have never watched it and probably never will as I cannot imagine birds being scary! But yesterday – a bird did scare me!

I set out for a walk at about 4 o’clock, taking my Ocean View Drive route.   I hadn’t walked for two days so was looking forward to a good workout.  All of a sudden I heard a high-pitched shriek and I felt a fluttering on my shoulder.

“What the heck – a crow is attacking me!”

  But of course that was just paranoia.  As I cringed and swatted at my shoulder I saw that it was not a large black-winged attacker but a small, beautiful red and green parakeet-type bird.  I was wearing a necklace of Venetian blue glass beads and she was very interested in these and the chain of my red cell phone bag. Clearly, she liked my bling.

 At the moment the bird landed on me a car screeched to a halt and after the few seconds it took to realise what had happened I glanced at her awestruck face.   “I saw it in the tree,” she said, “And then it just flew at you.  I thought it must be your pet!”

“Not mine,” I replied.  “Any idea who it could belong to?”

  No, she did not.   And the birdie did not want to leave my shoulder, arm, head or back.  He just clung on and chattered in my ear.  I had to take my earbuds out (I’d been listening to a podcast!)   Ocean View Drive is a long one so knocking on doors as just not an option and I didn’t want to walk back home in case the bird flew off and got lost far from home.  Instead, I took a selfie and rang Earl to fetch me so we could look after the lovely avian until the rightful parents could be found. Earl couldn’t believe it so luckily I had the selfie to prove my predicament.  While I waited I posted on Facebook’s  Luv 4 Pets and Struisbaai Fun but of course, these posts would only go live after the admins had approved them.

The Earl soon picked me up and dropped me at home while he went to buy seed in case we were to be the custodians for a while before the rightful parents were found.

After Earl left it struck me that our neighbourhood WhatsApp group, Meerkat,  would probably be the most likely to respond so I posted the selfie with the caption, “Anybody know this bird?  He dropped in on me while I was walking on Ocean View Drive!”

Within minutes Bettie replied.  “Dit lyk soos Pollie.  Die Zeemans het so ‘n voel wat vry in die huis rondvlieg.” (It looks like Polly – The Zeemans have such a bird and he flies freely around their house)

I know the Zeemans from the boat club and had Adel’s number, so I quickly rang her.  “Ek het ‘n voêl hier by my.  Is dit joune?”  (I have a bird with me.  Could it be yours?)

She told me that her two African Greys were in their cages.  Could I describe the bird?  So I sent her the photo and got a voice note back.  “Dis Pollie.  Ek het nie geweet dat sy weg was. (It’s Polly – I didn’t know she was missing!)

I sent the address and she and her son arrived just as Earl returned from the supermarket with the seed. Pollie greeted her people with much screeching and kissing.   They got into the car but just as they were about to drive away, Pollie flew out of the open window and perched on the overhead wire!  And she would not return to either of them.  The neighbour’s cat was very interested, so I picked her up and told her to behave.  Pollie then flew into another garden and high up into a tree which Adel’s son attempted to climb.   Eventually, she came down to a lower bush and with much coaxing and encouragement the young man managed to get Pollie to willingly hop onto his hand and then his shoulder and they got her into the car. 

I did some googling to see what kind of bird Pollie is and the closest I can come up with is a Jandaya Parakeet which originated in the northeast of Brazil where it is quite common in the wild. Pollie is a well-cared-for pet and would not survive if released to care for herself.