My desk is by the window. Outside the window is a very large tree. I looked out to see many passers by stopping and staring up at the tree. I could not see anything noteworthy in tree from my vantage point.
Over the next several hours, the crowd grew, perhaps to 30 at it largest. Construction staff (of which there are many buzzing around) were tugging on ropes draped over high branches.
The nearest branch from which one might attempt to climb the rest of the tree is about 30 feet off the ground. A ladder was brought in, but attempts to scale it were aborted for the uneven ground. Pointing. Discussing. Embassy construction managers and engineers huddled. A second ladder, and lashing. Alas, the same result.
Then a forty foot pole, from whence I cannot even guess, arrived and was employed by a team of three, one holding the pole, two balancing him. And the tree was jabbed. The pole pushed branches aside and at last, about three hours into the ordeal as I peaked up periodically from my work, I saw the object of interest, a large hawk, tangled in a rope winding through the tree for who knows what reason.
By hour four, the bird was out of the tree, dead.
I can't put my finger on why, but I found it reassuring that scores of workers would leave their posts for hours to pursue the rescue of an almost certainly doomed bird.
Over the next several hours, the crowd grew, perhaps to 30 at it largest. Construction staff (of which there are many buzzing around) were tugging on ropes draped over high branches.
The nearest branch from which one might attempt to climb the rest of the tree is about 30 feet off the ground. A ladder was brought in, but attempts to scale it were aborted for the uneven ground. Pointing. Discussing. Embassy construction managers and engineers huddled. A second ladder, and lashing. Alas, the same result.
Then a forty foot pole, from whence I cannot even guess, arrived and was employed by a team of three, one holding the pole, two balancing him. And the tree was jabbed. The pole pushed branches aside and at last, about three hours into the ordeal as I peaked up periodically from my work, I saw the object of interest, a large hawk, tangled in a rope winding through the tree for who knows what reason.
By hour four, the bird was out of the tree, dead.
I can't put my finger on why, but I found it reassuring that scores of workers would leave their posts for hours to pursue the rescue of an almost certainly doomed bird.
1 comment:
Turns out the bird lived. Looked dead to me. Way to go Embassy Facilities Management.
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