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Where We Left Off:
The detectives investigated a new type of unsub in the previous case—a beast in wolf’s clothing.
The Sparrow:
It was two days after what other people call Christmas (for me, it’s a randomly chosen day with presents). The snow has significantly melted which meant Gus was ready to go exploring. The entire time he kept shaking off his feet. Don’t dare try to dry them though!
Ollie decided to continue his nap in whichever seat his humans wanted. He hadn’t been outside on patrol in a couple weeks and would only snag seconds of sniffing fresh air when a door was opened.
The one o’clock sun was right over us reflecting off the remaining snow. If I looked at the luminance of the landscape too long, I saw spots like when a camera flash goes off in your face. Nature’s paparazzi.
“Gus, wait for me there,” I said when he reached the end of the path. I distributed birdseed and peanuts at three locations and returned to meet Gus in the lower parking area.
“I smell something.” Gus didn’t get tense, but his muscles were engaged and ready to move. I could tell by his stature that we were about to get to work.
The black pavement of our little private road no longer glistened as the sun dried it. It didn’t have the aroma of petrichor like it does the rest of the year. Snow has its own kind of smell that’s indescribable. We walked up the slight incline towards Lord Theodore’s Iron Gate which was installed right next to one entrance to Bunny Hollow (giving me and the wild animals about six inches of space to walk through now).
“Is something there, Gus, or is that a clump of snow?” We were more than halfway to the upper parking lot for the hangar and workshop.
Gus went ahead and stopped to smell the thing I saw. He confirmed that we had, unfortunately, found another dead body and it was clearly a white-throated sparrow. I made a video recording of his examination, the transport of the body, and my own examination.
The bird looks asleep in the video and images. There’s nothing bloody or gory.
After leaving snacks at the Big Rock, several critters showed up including Eastern grey squirrels and birds. The blue jays yelled with excitement of getting peanuts. For some reason, their screeches sound louder in winter. One of them landed on the small black walnut tree that has been growing abutted against the Big Rock.
Gus sprinted to the rock which made the squirrels scatter. The birds were able to take to higher perches. They waited, watching Gus on the ground below. One at a time, sparrows, juncos, and blue jays dropped down to snag a seed or two. Gus recognized one of the birds as an alleged former member of the Blue Jay Gang, Loujay Ferrante. Loujay was infamous—not for any crimes he committed—as a snitch. Somehow, only a couple of the gang members held any resentment towards him.
The blue jay was questioned. Gus was definitely growing bored of all the extraneous details. Loujay was a darn good storyteller. He could spin a yarn, as the old saying goes. He admitted that he did see the sparrow’s body when flying. He didn’t have anything to do with its death.
We asked the bird to take off and get us some information. We planned to meet up with him in a more secluded corner where there’s a tree stump about 30 inches high. Loujay stuck to his word and found us fifteen minutes later. He reported that several of the house sparrows, dark-eyed juncos, and white-throated sparrows witnessed the victim being hit by the pick-up truck with the earsplitting sounds and a trailer in tow. With more information Loujay divulged, we were able to fill in all the gaps in this mystery.
Gus and I took the body to a spot in the back where the snow had been cleared. I was a place where I had left snacks for the critters and all the animals seemed to use as a toilet. There were any poops at that moment, so I laid Chuck Egger to rest in the grass. He would either serve as a meal for the next animal who needed nutrition, or perhaps, be taken away to an afterlife by someone like a Valkyrie.
Victimology
Species: White-Throated Sparrow
Name/Street Name: Chuck Egger
Approx. Age: adult
Known family or associates: small sparrows of Bunny Hollow and frequent visitors at the burning bush hedges
Enemies: none found
Suspect: Lord Theodore
Manner and Cause of Death
The manner of death was indeed homicide since the death of Chuck Egger was caused by someone else and was not natural nor self-inflicted. The cause of death is blunt trauma from a collision with a moving vehicle. Despite the death being homicide, it was likely not intentional.
Case Findings:
Gus and I were able to solve this case before we got home from the adventure where the body of Chuck Egger was discovered. Chuck was a healthy adult male white-throated sparrow. He was killed after a collision with a truck’s windshield. It’s supposition, but it is possible that Chuck wobbled for a few minutes trying to recover, but fell over in the middle of the private road. The perpetrator is the driver of the loud pick-up truck.
Case Status: Closed
References:
Egger, S. (2024) Bird window collisions, Bird Window Collisions | U.S. Geological Survey. Available at: https://www.usgs.gov/labs/bird-banding-laboratory/science/bird-window-collisions (Accessed: 02 January 2025).
