{"id":12490,"date":"2025-12-14T04:26:56","date_gmt":"2025-12-14T04:26:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/accordingtokirsty.com\/?p=12490"},"modified":"2025-12-14T06:31:00","modified_gmt":"2025-12-14T06:31:00","slug":"so-near","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/accordingtokirsty.com\/index.php\/2025\/12\/14\/so-near\/","title":{"rendered":"So near\u2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

I came very close to taking the perfect photo this morning.<\/p>\n

Yesterday evening as I was watching a Christmas movie, I saw a blackbird hop into the lounge through the open door. Sadly, the dog\u2019s reactions were quicker than mine, and by the time I\u2019d registered what was happening, the dogs had raced out and were chasing the bird across the room, with me yelling behind them. I heard a bashing noise and a loud squawk and then silence. I reached the bird sitting stunned in a cloud of feathers before it flew out of the open sliding door.<\/p>\n

Clearly birds have a lot of redundancy in their feather coverage if it could still fly in spite of leaving this mess behind:<\/p>\n

\"\"Fast forward to this morning, as I was drinking my first coffee of the day and catching up on the news, when I happened to look up. Max was sitting up, staring intently out of the glass door at a blackbird on the fence, that was staring back at him. It was just the most perfect follow up to the events of the night before. Unfortunately, by the time I grabbed my phone, the bird had flown away. Was it even the same bird? Something tells me it was. So, I\u2019m sorry I missed the ideal picture but I\u2019m glad it\u2019s still alive and game enough to torment the dog another day.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Make no mistake: those are the eyes of a stone cold killer<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I came very close to taking the perfect photo this morning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12490","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa8Ukf-3fs","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":7516,"url":"https:\/\/accordingtokirsty.com\/index.php\/2022\/02\/06\/fall\/","url_meta":{"origin":12490,"position":0},"title":"Fall","author":"Interloper11","date":"February 6, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"The dogs were barking wildly inside this morning so I got up to see what they were up to. There was a blackbird stuck inside, flapping at the window above the front door, terrified and trying to escape. I opened the front door and waited but it seemed disinclined to\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/accordingtokirsty.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/8C31002F-A112-4583-BA00-80A4949AC835-225x300.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3924,"url":"https:\/\/accordingtokirsty.com\/index.php\/2019\/12\/28\/twitching\/","url_meta":{"origin":12490,"position":1},"title":"Twitching","author":"Interloper11","date":"December 28, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Informed my husband excitedly that there was a blackbird nest in the tree outside our bedroom window. \u201cHarrumph\u201d he said. \u201cNot even a tui? I bet it\u2019ll start warbling at three o\u2019clock in the morning...\u201d if it does I suspect it will get short shrift. Has anyone heard the story\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5342,"url":"https:\/\/accordingtokirsty.com\/index.php\/2020\/08\/21\/spooky-3\/","url_meta":{"origin":12490,"position":2},"title":"Spooky","author":"Interloper11","date":"August 21, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Found a dead silver eye on our lawn yesterday, my assumed cause of death would be flying into the window like a fool. I chucked it into the compost bin (the old one - not the flash new Swedish rotational one) but this morning it wasn\u2019t there. 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There\u2019s only one pub and limited accommodation options, but it\u2019s gone\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/accordingtokirsty.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/1AFAE6DE-B0B8-489A-A8D8-BA82211D3DC2.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/accordingtokirsty.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/1AFAE6DE-B0B8-489A-A8D8-BA82211D3DC2.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/accordingtokirsty.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/1AFAE6DE-B0B8-489A-A8D8-BA82211D3DC2.jpeg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2400,"url":"https:\/\/accordingtokirsty.com\/index.php\/2019\/05\/20\/present-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":12490,"position":5},"title":"Present","author":"Interloper11","date":"May 20, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Grrr! 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