Feathered friend frequented Powell neighborhoods

A wild bird known as Bert made friends around Powell as he joined barbecues, perched on wine glasses and swooped down to sit on strangers’ shoulders.

“He’s quite the friendly little bugger, but can startle you as he will land at your feet or on your shoulder and even your head,” said Eric Larsen of Powell.

Larsen was in his backyard the first time Bert flew down and sat on the table next to him.

“I thought it was the strangest thing — this bird’s not afraid of anyone,” he recalled.

Larsen later learned that his neighbor, Marilyn Wintermote, had rescued the baby bird.

Wintermote — who said that her cat may have initially gotten a hold of the grackle — nursed it back to health. She fed the little bird, provided a safe place for him and started calling him Bert.

It didn’t take long for Bert to warm up to people.

While Bert frequently visited Wintermote and Larsen and his wife, Cheryl, the bird also ventured into other people’s backyards and garages.

Since Bert is so friendly, Larsen posted on Facebook in September to ask whether fellow Powellites had seen him in their neighborhoods.

“I was hoping people would watch out for him and look after him,” Larsen said.

Soon, local Facebook users started replying with their stories of Bert.

“If he is in our garage, he won’t let me leave without being on my shoulder,” wrote a resident who lives on the corner of Wood Street and Avenue K. “We gave him a room. He’s like the drunk friend. Eat, sleeps then bounces in the morning.”

A Division Street resident said the friendly bird also stopped by her yard.

“I was outside and it kept landing on me,” she wrote.

Others said they shared their beer or other drink with Bert as he stopped by their backyards. A few posted pictures of Bert perched on a shoulder or hand.

Larsen was surprised by all the responses.

“I was hoping that at least a couple people would respond and say they had heard from him, but I had no idea there would be that many people,” he said. “We were thinking, ‘This guy is really working the neighborhood. He’s hitting everybody up.’ They’ve seen him as far as Avenue C, and we’re up on Wood Street. He’s traveled quite a bit.”

Along the way, Bert made friends and also picked up new nicknames, such as Pecker, Snappy and Jeff Rogers.

“Of course, everybody had a different name for him,” Wintermote said.

Bert also entertained people, catching breadcrumbs in the air or even trying to catch digital bugs crawling across a tablet computer screen.

He loves bugs of all kinds, Larsen said.

“He’d sit on a rock and wait for it to be turned over so he could get bugs,” Wintermote added.

She described him as a goofball, but also a very smart bird.

“It’s the damnedest thing you ever saw, this bird,” she said.

As the weather cooled down this fall, Wintermote provided an electric blanket for him in her garage, along with his food.

“He’s got a smorgasbord of bird food, cookies and drinking water,” Larsen said.

“He loved iced oatmeal cookies,” Wintermote added.

She also gave Bert lukewarm water to bathe in, and another bowl of water to drink.

“He would stay all day in the garage when it was windy or rainy,” Wintermote said.

Bert started pecking on Wintermote’s door to get her attention.

“He knocked on the door when he’d want me to come out,” she said.

As a grackle — a protected bird — Bert can’t be kept in a cage, Larsen said.

“He’s free to come and go, but he stays in Marilyn’s garage when he’s around,” he said.

However, they haven’t seen Bert for a few weeks (see related story).

“We’re all missing him — we don’t know where he went,” Larsen said.

With winter coming on, Bert’s friends are concerned about his welfare.

“He may or may not migrate south with his feathered brethren, and if not, we possibly could watch out for him so that he may survive the winter,” Larsen said.