New Year’s Eve for the Birds!

“Ga-th-er r-o-u-n-d,” cawed a crow in a grating, rattly voice as it circled above the snow-covered neighbourhood.

At once, the magpies, sparrows, thrushes, pigeons, tits, and warblers all flew to the usual meeting place in front of one of the houses, landing on the cold asphalt and hopping from foot to foot. The crow performed another figure-of-eight in the air and then perched on the iron railing. From there, he surveyed the diverse flock of birds below, and cleared his throat.

“As you must have noticed by now, the humans have recently finished celebrating Christmas. And you surely know what that means.”

A series of sighs came from the mixed flock of birds. They knew well what it meant: New Year’s Eve celebrations would soon be underway.

The crow announced: “Well, we mustn’t accept this any longer! Fireworks scare our children. They also cause us to lose our bearings, and worst of all, they can harm us. I suggest we stand up to the humans this year. We’ll form a regiment, and when midnight comes, we’ll…”

Just then, the sparrow interrupted: “What if we simply flew away instead?” she chirped coyly. “It’s only one night, after all.”

Next, the black-and-white magpie spoke up: “Wait a minute, if we go off and hide, the humans will pick up all those shiny fireworks wrappers and there’ll be none left for me! I’ve already made space for them in my nest…”

The warbler piped up: “But don’t you remember what happened to you last year, Mr Magpie? You went after a stray firecracker thinking it was gold, and you almost got blown up!”

At that, the crow cried out: “Enough is enough. This is war!”, shaking his head belligerently. But the rest of the bird convention merely…