Setting The Captive Free

Stepped out to replenish the squirrel corn cob feeder while ago. Felt so nice to get outside, been down with flu for a couple of days, you know the drill, fever(102°, aches, delirium, sleeplessness, thinking you're dying stuff...anyway just felt good to get outside. So I began hearing what I thought was a woodpecker. The pounding sounded as if it were on a hollow tree right next to me but I scanned all the sweetgums and oaks to no avail. Then I happened to see a furtive movement . . . inside my "squirrel proof" bird feeder. Yep . . . a little chick-a-dee was trapped inside and tapping to let me know he wanted out! After opening the top he acted like he couldn't quite decide to make his great escape in the vertical so I laid it across the bird basin where he then waddled out and hit the ground wobbling. Guess he had been in there too long and was too stiff to fly right off the bat? Anyway I left him to his ground wanderings in my unraked yard . . . then once back inside I started thinking, what about the neighborhood cats. Were they going to be the recipients of my random act of kindness? Sigh . . . sometimes Nature is cruel. Hope the little guy survives.