Starling in our wood stove

This morning I was checking on our cistern pump in the basement and I heard some racket in the rec room. I went over and at first I thought it was in the ducts, but then I noticed movement in the wood stove. At first I thought it was a mouse, then a rat, but when I looked closer I saw a bird. It was a starling. After a close attempt to capture it (with gloves on), it flew out of the wood stove around the rec room and settled in a corner behind a 6' book case. 

I feared that I would have to empty the book case to retrieve it. It turns out that it was actually hiding between the 6' corner book case and a smaller 3' book case in a triangular space about 8'x8'x11'. I gathered a blanket, dropped it on it and then slowly lifted it living only a small opening through which I put my hand and managed to grab it. It clung to the carpet with its claws, make a lot of screeching sounds and tried to peck at me. 

After loosening its claws and making sure I do not squeeze it too hard, I got it out and took it outside (while it kept screeching). I tried to plop it on the grass outside our yard (just in case Eddie was interesting in the commotion), but it flew right away before it even touched the ground towards the back of the property with ease and speed. 

I am glad it seemed to be uninjured by all the commotion and still had enough energy to fly away (so it couldn't have been down in the stove for too long). Now we need to figure out how to prevent birds from coming into our wood stove.

The Cure: covers

While listening to some Brazilian lounge music, I was pleasantly surprised to hear a bossa nova cover of Lullaby, a 1989 song of one of my favorite all time bands, The Cure. This was a much more positive experience than hearing Pictures of You made into a crass ad a few years ago. I also found a symphonic cover of Friday I'm in Love which pales in comparison to the original, but I might be biased as I listened to the original dozens of times and it's imprinted on my brain as the Golden Copy :) Here is someone's top 20 Cure songs. This also reminds me of the July 18, 1996 live concert (part of the Swing Tour) at the outdoors Polaris Amphitheatre (1994-2007) that I went to (and moshed with some random dudes on the lawn).