I guess that once you hit the big
five-oh, being a kid was a long time ago. So remembering the source
of the things you heard is nigh unto impossible. The one I'm thinking
of now is how we always heard that if you hold a baby bird, then put
it back in its nest, the parent birds will reject it because of the
human smell. I recently read that this was not so, but hey, how often
does one get the chance to verify this sort of thing? Got my chance
today. Sure, it looks like a definite likely hood of God's
intervention, but it was satisfying.
Out in my car port-workshop area,
there is an old sheet metal cabinet thing. The door is missing, but
it works well to store spray paint cans in. In the top shelf, a
couple of little birds have made their nest. Whether they made it
before we sat those van bench seats there, or were just dumb birds,
and did it after, I don't recall. At any rate, the cats got up there,
tore down several cans of paint, and got at the hatchlings. We
snatched one from the cat's mouth, and put it back in the nest. But
the parents hardly paid it any attention. They kept flying lowly
about the shop, and acting as if they were looking for something. As
we approached, they moved just outside the car port, to a bush. This
looked like the typical bird maneuver that I've seen many times; the
decoy and distract tactic. But with all the commotion, we decided to
follow them. Keep in mind that there were cats all over, they would
not leave the scene. As we looked under the bush, one of the little
birds was flying toward a place on the ground, then back into the
bush. This happened more than once, as I recall. I turned on my
flashlight, and on the ground at that spot was another hatchling. I
had my daughter pick it up, and return it to the nest. I moved the
van bench seats away, and made a hardware cloth (wire mesh stuff)
cage covering most of that shelf. There is an opening big enough for
them to fly in and out of.
Of course, the big question was if the
parents would resume housekeeping. I went out there this morning,
confirmed that both hatchlings were in the nest, then stepped back to
watch if the parents were coming around. Within a minute they showed
up, feeding the little ones. Pretty neat stuff.
