10/20/03 Bird TKO'd on Circle Line; Scrabble w/Brian and Aaron:

A circle line crew member comes up to me while cleaning the vessel between tours. To my amazement, he's holding a bird in his hand. The bird seems to be completely docile. I soon find out why.

Birds often come onto the ship during cleanup. They actually help, much like on subway cars at the end of elevated lines. They take away some of the scraps of food... to eat. But occasionally, these birds, who had no problem venturing into the inner cabin upstairs, with do something stupid. This one flew straight into a pane of glass on a closed window that the bird must have thought was open. And so it knocked itself out, and was found, passed out on the floor. Thus the docile demeanor.

When a bird is in a comatose state, they still look like an awake bird... just without all the head movements. This one was perfectly still... until about 30 seconds after I took this photo. It just woke up, and flew away before this guy knew what happened. The end.

After Circle Line, Brian and Aaron came over to play scrabble. The money in the foreground is my tips being counted.