Little B has left the building.

Through the back door in fact.

The story of how Little B flew away accidentally, I was outside hanging up washing. Little B was sitting on the inside laundry door. Suddenly a gust of wind slammed the door with a BANG! which set Little B into a panicked flying frenzy round and round the laundry.

I went over to calm Little B down and reached for the door, crossing my mind "Little B will probably fly out"...But then I thought, "nah, it didn't fly out the other day for a whole 15 minutes of open door". Click here * for the times I tried to let Little B go...or just scroll to the next post.

So I opened the door...

And Little B flew out with a last hop on the top of my head and perched in a small bottle brush tree next to us. We were just looking at each other for a few seconds, then suddenly Little B flew high into a tree at the opposite end of the garden.

Little B had flown so fast and so deftly, I actually thought it was a wild honeyeater that had flown into the tree to join Little B. It took me a moment to realize, that it WAS Little B with it's distinct bent 'L' shaped tail, who had flown and honed in on a high branch, so perfect and so quick.

I was a little stunned Little B was actually outside with full strength. I called it's name, expecting it to fly back over, or at least chirp, but instead Little B took off.

And that New Holland Honeyeater came out of nowhere again, and gave chase. But this time, I watched as Little B shrieked back at the New Holland honeyeater, and stayed out of reach of it, dancing and hopping around all over the trees. The New Holland honeyeater couldn't catch Little B and finally Little B flew over our house and away to who knows where. For the whole day until night I kept a watch out for Little B and called out to it, probably a bit too much and annoyed the hell out of all my neighbours. But Little B didn't come back.

I was mixed with a feeling of happiness, seeing how strong Little B could fly, just as fast and well as any other Singing Honeyeater. And I was also sad that Little B left so quickly and finally, without looking back once. It was so tame a friendly just a moment ago.

Then again, I would only hope that when it's out there, it returns to being a real BIRD with all it's bird instincts. I don't like to think that if it got hungry it might land on random people's heads. To anyone else, would they realise the native honeyeater was tame? Would it cross their mind that it might have been handraised? Would people hit Little B if it tried to land on their head? And then what if it got hungry or thirsty, or being free outdoors was just a novelty and once it wore off, Little B wanted to come home? Could a honeyeater recognise a house from the outside if it spent all it's time on the inside?

 

When Little B was Baby B.