Editor:

Thanks for printing my letter last week about Arcata doing better (Mailbox, April 13). I need to share that I was chastised by two of Arcata's community ambassadors for my letter because I mentioned that a man with a walker had died on the streets. They asked where I gotten that information and it was from the men who hang out in front of the bars on the north side of the plaza. So if the man with the walker didn't die on the streets, some of his street friends don't know what happened to him.

But let's talk about birds for a moment. Last Wednesday, I was retracing my steps in the early morning to search for my cell phone which I last remember seeing at city hall during the planning commission special meeting I attended the night before. As I rounded the corner at K and Sixth streets, I saw what I thought was a dead rat. However, as I moved closer to inspect, it was a bird on its back. I flipped the bird over and it just stayed there not moving for more than 10 minutes. At that point, I decided to put it in a box and take it to the new location of the Humboldt Wildlife Care Center out in Manila so they could give it an exam. The Wildlife Care director showed up to immediately take the shoebox with the bird under his experienced "wing." This little gold crowned sparrow had hit the blackened window of Arcada, the arcade place, and after a day's stay at HWCC, it was released back to the place I found it and it will hopefully avoid window glass in the future.

I tell this story as Arcata celebrates Godwit Days because, unlike the two-plus hours I spent looking for a shower and clean clothes for a young man a week ago, it took very little time for me to get the local resource to help this little bird.

The moral of the story is that, apparently, Arcata is for the birds.

Joanne McGarry, Arcata