But during that day, snow fell and Phil was outside shoveling the sidewalk and our deck.  The warmer spots seemed to be melting the snow, so we still didn’t think the snowfall would be a hinderance.  But, by suppertime, the snow was the same depth as before and by morning time, the snow was even deeper than before.

Could it get any worse?  Of course it could and by 1:00, when Phil was working at his desk in our bedroom…. Crash!   A beautiful Yellow-rumped Warbler hit our glass sliding door and was face down in the snow with its wings spread wide apart!  The bird was going to freeze to death on the snow.

What to do?  It was freezing outside!  What would Stephanie from Wildcare say to do?  There wasn’t any time left to figure it out.  A decisive plan had to be made.. and quickly.  A shoebox. That’s the plan.  He grabbed a shoebox without a cover, went outside and placed the bird into the box.  The bird stood up.  That was a great sign.  But for over 2+ hours, the bird was motionless.  Phil sent a text his daughter for some ideas… “bring the box into the garage, place it in the sun, heating lamp” plus more suggestions.  They were all great suggestions, but… no sun, no heating lamp, etc.  He just had to do something and hope for the best.

If the bird didn’t live, he would always be second guessing what should he had done.  Time went by very slowly with no bird motion.  Finally after 2+ hours, the bird started turning its head and started looking around.  Then after 10 minutes… flew away.  Phil’s  daughter asked in a text, “Dad, did the bird leave you a thank you?” He replied “Yes”… as he sent her the last photo of the empty box with the “thank you” inside.