Nigel, the worlds loneliest bird, dies next to the concrete decoy he loved

[jpak]

http://bangordailynews.com/2018/02/02/outdoors/nigel-the-worlds-loneliest-bird-dies-next-to-the-concrete-decoy-he-loved/

Nigel, a handsome gannet bird who lived on a desolate island off the coast of New Zealand, died suddenly this week. Wherever his soul has landed, the singles scene surely cannot be worse.

The bird was lured to Mana Island five years ago by wildlife officials who, in hopes of establishing a gannet colony there, had placed concrete gannet decoys on cliffsides and broadcast the sound of the species’ calls. Nigel accepted the invitation, arriving in 2013 as the island’s first gannet in 40 years. But none of his brethren joined him.

In the absence of a living love interest, Nigel became enamored with one of the 80 faux birds. He built her – it? – a nest. He groomed her “chilly, concrete feathers . . . year after year after year,” the Guardian reported. He died next to her in that unrequited love nest, the vibrant orange-yellow plumage of his head contrasting, as ever, with the weathered, lemony paint of hers.

“Whether or not he was lonely, he certainly never got anything back, and that must have been [a] very strange experience,” conservation ranger Chris Bell, who also lives on the island, told the paper. “I think we all have a lot of empathy for him, because he had this fairly hopeless situation.”

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[Ferrets are Cool]

1. I know this is silly, but damn, thats a sad story.

[whathehell]

2. I don't find it silly, I feel the same way...

It is sad...Maybe they should have removed the lonely bird when they saw he was being joined by any others.

[Xipe Totec]

3. De Carton Piedra (the plasterboard mannequin)

She was a glory dressed in gossamer
with blue distant eyes
she smiled from the display case
with her small ruby lips
and patent leather shoes
that sparkled in the sunlight
pretty and clean. Always in fashion
dressed up as if for a wedding

And I would go see her at all times
Because I loved that woman
made of plasterboard.
that from St. Estevan's to Christmas
between sales and novelties
made the sidewalk more joyful.

She was not like those April girls
who scratched my forehead and cheeks.
who ate my orange in slices (stole my joy)
who tore my hopes to pieces,
And with disdain for moments borrowed
forget the air they breathed yesterday
and play the cards they have at the moment
Tomorrow is simply an adverb of time.

No. She waited in her display case
for me to bend the corner
Like a bride
Like a little bird asking me
Free me, free me
let us escape and write history.

With a rock I broke the glass
And I ran and ran with her to my door.
Her body trembled in my arms
under the smile of a March moon.
Under the rain we danced a waltz,
one, two, three, one, two, three, it was all the same,
And I would speak to her of our future,
And she cried in silence, I swear!

And between four walls and a roof
onto her breast crashed
sorrow after sorrow
I had the universe in my hands
and turned the past into a verse
lost inside a poem.

And then they came
and pushed me out of my home
and imprisoned in four white walls,
where my friends come to see me
Every month, two by two, between six and seven.

[mucifer]

4. Lots of lonely birds living by themselves in those stupid small cages.

[red dog 1]

5. Truly sad story

Too bad they couldn't have found him a mate from a zoo or bird sanctuary etc.

[withoutapaddle]

6. tear jerker alert

Hope is the thing with feathers...