{our morning...}

went like this:

Wake up to kids playing and whining.
Go downstairs to make breakfast for said whiners.
Peek out the window while whiners eat.

The usual, pretty much. But, this morning's view from the window is a little out of the ordinary because my eye catches a poor baby bird squirming around on the ground. Well, I, being my Mother's child (my mother rescued so many baby birds when I was growing up), fluff up and cozy the inside of a box and make my heroic way out the backdoor to save this helpless bird. Or maybe not. I get near the baby and just as I am about to scoop it up I start to get dive-bombed by a protective mommy bird. Had I seen her before my heroic deed commenced, I may have gone about my plan a little differently. So, I throw my box and run for my life as I feel the mommy bird give my head a little peck. I continue to watch from inside as the mommy feeds the baby a couple times and never strays farther than a couple yards from her needy offspring. She is a very good mommy. But regardless, I'm thinking that baby bird will die if it stays on the ground and no matter how much food she brings it, she cant carry it back up to her nest (which I am not ever sure where that is). I continue on with my morning peeking out the window now and again and wondering what to do without making the mommy give up on her baby. Then I see the mama bird charging something on the ground (mind you, I already watched her charge every large bug in flight that may have flown too near to her baby). Great, she is fighting off a snake. So, I grab my shovel - a.k.a. the "snake chopper" - and go out to help her. Luckily, it's only a skinny green garden snake. Unluckily, it gets away because I am too distracted between killing it and making sure the mommy doesn't peck me again. Now I decide I really have to get that baby off the ground. And, no-joke, there is a GIANT hawk circling my yard as well at this point that also thinks that baby looks tasty. Sheesh. So, I go inside, make a little make-shift nest to put the baby in and grab the boy next door who was unfortunate enough to be fixing fence boards in my moment of need. He gladly helps me run interference with the mommy bird and even tells me he, too, noticed the hawk and wondered what it was after.

Success! We got the baby and I brought it inside so I could see if the mommy would give up and show me where her nest is. No luck. She just frantically circles the last known position of her baby. Poor thing. I'm a mommy, I totally understand. So I decide that I have to get that baby back outside where she can see it so she doesn't lose hope. After all, I cannot raise this baby bird. So, I take my nested baby outside and try to put it in a tree only to discover that I am not a very good nest stabilizer. I have a new-found respect for birds. How do they get those little nests so snug in their branches? On to another idea: there is an abandoned nest across the yard that Dev and I always comment on year after year when the leaves are gone and the branches are bare. So, I place the little baby in that nest because it is much closer to my level than where I think the mommy's actual nest is. Now, to run in and observe. Will the mommy, who watched me like a hawk as I was out nest-placing, go to her baby.

Success again! She found her baby and has since made routine stops to feed it. She hasn't really settled in the borrowed nest so I don't know how that is going, but at least she' still feeding her baby.

What a morning. I'm tired. But, I did manage to take a picture of the cute little thing before I put the nest out. How could I not help this little sweetie?


And here is mama giving me the stink-eye. I still don't know if she thinks I helped or hindered the situation. Oh well.