Chirpie

This beautiful little swalow tail came into our lives for a while. We were about 60 miles from land so he was a long way from wherever he started from. We first noticed him soaring around our foredeck. He settled on the lifelines but we didn't have the camera out and we thought we had missed our opportunity for a picture. He came back and rested on our dingy which is stored folded and in it's bag on the front of the cabin. Then he came back and sat on the lifelines then onto David's lap! He flew away again but then we figured it was worth pulling the camera out. Next, he came and rested on my arm. We were shocked at how unafraid he seemed. He sat on my arm for quite some time, just resting. We tried to offer him some water in a bottle cap and cracker crumbs and ground up nuts but he wasn't interested. After a while, he flew inside the cabin and rested on top or our table which stores up against the bulkhead. Again, he flew out of the companion way and flew off. He sang us beautiful songs and had the most fibrant colors. His top feathers were a gorgeous blue-black and his breast was a shiny shade of rust. When he came back we decided he was our mascot and David named him Chirpie. At dusk, he flew back to his perch on top of the table and we tried not to disturb him. Sadly, when it was light enough, David checked on him and he had died in the night. Apparently he was too worn out from being blown around. We gave him a burial at sea and bid him farewell.