• The Twitter Bird is Dead: An Anecdotal Tale from the Firesphere

    Posted on May 26th, 2011 by and currently 3 commenting.

    As the newbie at Brains on Fire, one of the questions I am most often asked these days is “What is like to work in the Firesphere?” And while there are many (delightful) adjectives I could use to describe my hours and days at 148 River Street, as a writer, I prefer to paint my pictures through the power of story.

    So today I’m not going to impart any profound wisdom upon you, reader. I’m not going to channel my inner Yoda or get philosophical. Instead, I’d like to share a little anecdote from the place we lovingly refer to as The Firesphere.

    First, let me set the scene.

    It’s 9:30 a.m. on Wednesday – a beautiful morning in Greenville. Inside the building all the BOFers are settling in for a hard day’s work, the scent of coffee wafting through the air, the first rays of morning sunshine peeking between the buildings, basking downtown in a soft, golden glow.

    [Cue track one]

    Whether it was Dodds or Cordell, I can’t recall.

    “Look! A hawk!” (or maybe it was a falcon, who knows?) someone exclaimed, the BOFers shuffling quickly to the window to behold the majestic beast.

    [Before I continue, it would be prudent to issue a disclaimer: this story doesn’t end well, and what you’re about to hear is not for the faint of heart. If you are easily offended by graphic bird-on-bird violence, now is the time to stop reading this post and watch this instead. If you are the kind of person who tears up (or suddenly "gets something in your eye") during the “homeless dogs” Pedigree commercials (don’t feel bad, I do, too…stupid "allergies") this is NOT going to leave you with warm fuzzies. You have been advised.]

    So there we were, faces pressed against the window, beholding the mighty hawk-falcon perched on the telephone pole a hundred feet from our building. For a brief and glorious moment, it felt like we had been transported into an episode from some show on Animal Planet. We looked on with the sense of wonderment and awe one only experiences when privy to nature’s flora and fauna in their full glory. And then….. [cue track 2] …..the hawk-falcon-pterodactyl began brutally de-feathering and devouring the carcass of the smaller (presumably sweeter) bird he had kung-fu death-grasped in his talons (which we hadn’t noticed up until this point.)

    I learned a hard life lesson yesterday: It’s a bird-eat-bird world out there.

    Hours later, still shaken, I posted something on Facebook about our somewhat atypical (if not mentally and emotionally scarring) morning. No sooner had I hit “submit” and Facebook chimed in with a helpful observation…

    Who knew Facebook had such an advanced sense of humor?

    Social media – 1. Amy – 0.

    ps: on the upside, Dodds did get some amazing photos of the hawk-falcon. (These are the gore-free set…)

  • W

    Who knew you could weave Grieg, Metallica and an episode of Animal Planet into such a funny (or heartbreaking, if you’re a bird watcher) story – LMBO! My daughter learned a similar lesson a few years ago as she admired a bunny grazing in the yard. A hawk kamikazed the bunny from nearly straight up and quickly eviscerated it as she watched on in horror. [cue "Circle of Life"]

    The pictures are of red-tailed hawks, which are very common in the US.
    http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/red-tailed_hawk/id
    http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/birds/red-tailed-hawk/

  • http://www.brainsonfire.com/blog amy

    W – Glad you enjoyed it. And thanks for the hawk info! They are beautiful for cold-hearted killers…

    I was also one of those kids who was traumatized by the loss of life in just about every children’s movie (Bambi, Old Yeller, Land Before Time, Finding Nemo, Lion King … the list goes on and on!)

  • eric

    It’s a Red-tailed Hawk(Buteo jamaicensis).