Jack's gone 'home'.

 I feel like I should be setting off fireworks to celebrate what I thought would be a momentous occasion, but it all went off very smoothly and with little fuss.  Last night, during the early evening, I told hubby that I thought Jack would progress much quicker without the confines of the greenhouse.  Most of his time was spent getting excited when he saw the other birds, and trying to figure out a way to get to them.  As Jack was fluttering about and knocking himself against the sides of the greenhouse, hubby agreed with me.  For a couple of days, I had been feeling as if we were keeping Jack a prisoner, instead of caring for him..... especially as he was now feeding himself.  So, as it was still light and a pleasantly warm evening, we opened the greenhouse doors and went off to watch the second episode of Corrie.  After the programme had finished, we looked in the greenhouse and there was no sign of  him.  Well, that's it..... he had gone.  I sent a little prayer out into the universe for him and went on to think of the highly charged and emotional words that I would put together for this farewell post.

I went to bed quietly confident that we had done the right thing........ only to be awakened by hubby excitedly running up the stairs at around 6 a.m.

"He's still in the greenhouse!"

Jack had just settled himself down, in a well-hidden place and hadn't left at all.  However, we left the doors open thinking that, now it was daytime and he was alert, he was bound to make a bid for freedom.  Wrong.  All he did was continue to peck seeds and chase off any other sparrows that dared to venture past the doorway!  We watched him for what seemed like hours and, not once, did he attempt to step outside.

I decided that he needed a little encouragement, so I went into the greenhouse and quietly began to tidy up and move some plants around.  Jack didn't like this as he now saw me as a threat.  After a while of dodging me, it wasn't long until he snuck out the door and round the side of the greenhouse.  I smiled and thought, "Yay, he's free."  I continued to potter about while discreetly watching to see what he would do.  Realising that he was in the open air, he paused momentarily and looked up at me with what I intrepreted as a bewildered look.

Then he hopped off into the hedgerow.  I went indoors for a cup of tea and came out to the greenhouse later to do some badly-needed potting on.  Lo and behold, there was Jack having a dustbath in the soil under the hedge.  As I worked, I watched him with the other sparrows, pecking up seed and crumbs of bread.  So much for his infant diet of cat food, seed, baby dinner and suet pellets!  He's attached himself to a group of sparrows that shelter in the leylandii hedge at the back of the garden and they don't seem to have any objections. 

I'll leave the doors of the greenhouse open tonight...... just in case he needs a warm place to lay his little head, but I somehow don't think he will take me up on the offer.  Now that he's in the big wide world, there's no going back.

 

Rock on little Jack Sparrow!