The weather has been warming up and the week before school gets out I go out to meet the kids off of the bus. As they run down the driveway, I see something hopping on the rocks right in front of them. I tell them to stop, hold up!, see what it is, and as we start to run after it I see that it’s a bird.
I don’t know if it’s injured or too small to fly but it hops under our trailer and we lose sight of it for a minute. We soon discover that it’s a baby that can’t seem to fly yet, and Ivy notices another one sitting in the grass, terrified of the little dog running after them both.
We grab Louise and Ervin starts to run after the bird, towards the ditch. I immediately tell them all to stop, leave them alone!. we don’t want them to go into the road. I turn around and see two adult birds flying and squawking after our cat, who seems to have gotten too close as well.
The chirping from the big birds in the trees that are sweeping around the yard is too loud and even a little bit scary to the kids, but I know that they’re just trying to protect these little ones who are hopping around and completely vulnerable, out in the open. I tell them all to come inside and bring Louise and just pray that the mama bird gets to these babies before they go too far.
Later, while the kids are playing in the backyard, I see one of the babies hopping around in the grass again and what I think is the mama flying overhead…I’m hopeful. But later as I take Louise out, I see something just on the edge of the road right in front of our driveway.
I walk out there with a knot in my stomach slowly and just hope it’s not what it looks like. But it is. One of the babies had hopped too close to the road and was hit by a car.
We have huge lovely trees in our front yard, and the birds had built their nest high up in one of them. They thought that it would be a great place to hatch the eggs and teach their babies to fly, but it turned out to be a terrible place.
My heart hurts for them. I wish I could have done more to help or warned them of the dangers, but I knew that they would have to learn on their own and I also knew just how deceiving a place can be.
Isn't it sad? But, also, nature is harsh. We have a robin's nest, on top of our fence, just under a window so that we can monitor the nest. We've been watching the mama sit on the three little eggs. We watched them hatch. We worried about them in the rain and the turbulent weather, but all were doing all right. Sunday morning though, there were only 2 babies. We found the other one on the other side of the fence, dead, in the lawn. We don't know what happened, but, that is the way of nature, isn't it?
Let me tell you what I love most about this…your reaction to that poor baby bird is so you. It is so your beautiful heart. This was some beautiful writing, my friend.
This is the harsh side of spring. We saw a family of geese walking together – right onto a busy interstate. I honked, and so did the cars behind me, and they turned away from the road.
I guess it's just nature, right? I think your kids learned a little about compassion and also things we can't do anything to prevent from happening.
You have a big heart, my friend. Poor baby bird.