Chapter 6 – Sir NightEyes

        Things got quiet at the next Grousing Day, but a tiny little voice twittered quietly. It was the Hummingbird.  She was flitting around nervously, and all the other animals were dodging her beak.  Finally she lit on a twig and said “I have something to ask.”   Queen Agra asked for more information,  “Which knight are you asking for help from?”  “Sir NightEyes.  It is an issue that effects us creatures of the sky and tree tops, so he is the most logical knight to help us.”   The owl nodded his head, spun it around almost to the back and said “WHO is asking?  I don’t see so well in the daylight.”    “It’s me” said the hummingbird.  “I am concerned about floating balls and sharp hooks. The balloons are more of a problem for me, but other birds have complained about inappropriate nesting options.   “ I see,” said Sir NightEyes.  “Let all the animals who share this worry come join me in the shrubs.  You’ll all be safe, but I can see you all too. All right.”  There was a wash of wings as the birds flew to the blueberry shrub, and the squirrels and other tree top creatures scurried there too.   “How are the floating balls bothering you?” asked the owl.  

“Well, I really like the color red," replied the hummingbird. "And I’m trying to teach my nestlings how sweet the nectar is from the red flowers.  But they see a red ball and try to feed on it, but it blows up in their faces!  They are afraid to eat anything now because they are worried it too will explode.”    “I understand,” said the Knight. “Does anyone else have problems with the floating balls?”The birds all nodded, but so did the chipmunks and squirrels.  “How are they bothering you?” he asked. 

A little red squirrel stood up on her hind legs and explained. “When the balls explode, pieces of them fall to the ground.  Our babies try to play with them, or maybe try to eat them, and wind up losing their air.  The scraps cover the baby’s head, so it can’t breathe, and they die. “  “And sometimes, they eat the ball scrap, and it fills their stomachs, so they can’t eat anything else,”  added an opossum.  “My kits think that is candy, and they wind up starving because there is no room for food anymore.  They never pass it out, so it just takes up space in their tiny tummies.”  

“ Ooh, that is a problem,” replied the Knight.  “My family doesn’t have this problem because we can spit up that which we do not digest.  But for those of you who can’t make pellets, this certainly is a concern.  Does anyone have any suggestions of how to fix this problem?”   There were a lot of vacant furry faces staring up the owl, but finally a chipmunk added.

“We should ban colored air balls.  We should tell the farmer they are not allowed on our farm.”   “That might be the solution  if all the floating balls came from the farmhouse. But they don’t,” added a robin.  “They soar in on the wind, get caught in the trees, and either pop, or just hang there until someone takes them down.  It’s not our farmer’s family doing it, so I don’t know how to stop it.”  

“Then there’s the mechanical flyers.  I’ve heard them called drones, but they don’t look like bees to me.  They don’t appear to have eyes, so they fly into nests, hit branches and birds, and sometimes fall on the ground dwellers,” added the raven.  

“I have heard them in my sleep, but didn’t know they were harming nature,” said Sir NightEyes.  “ What are they for?”     Raven went on to explain that they were used as toys by humans, but also for searching for lost animals, or examining property lines.  “They do have a function for humans, since they can’t fly.  But the humans can’t see what the drone is doing. They only see the ground from the machine, not the air.  I don’t know how we make them stop.”   Finally, a little wren spoke up.  Then there’s the problem of the invisible string, and the hooks it holds.  I see them being used by  humans when they fish,  but they don’t pay attention to what happens to the hook when they take it out of the fish.  They also don’t try to retrieve any hook or string that falls to the ground.  Once when I went to build a new nest, I thought I was picking up a thread, but it wound up being a hook line.  When my nestlings hatched, one of them died because they got stabbed by the hook.”   “Oh, no,” gasped the assembly. “That’s terrible.”   

  “I see that is indeed a problem.  I will think about this, and talk to Queen Agra about it. It might not be something we can fix immediately, but we can try.  Meanwhile, stay away from floating and flying objects, and try to use fur instead of string, to line your nests.”   The group grumbled when they broke up, but at least they had explained their problem. Now it was up to Sir NightEyes and Queen Agra to find a solution.