FCIWYPSC

Bye, bye, Birdie… June 19, 2012

Posted by mareserinitatis in younger son.
Tags: bird, younger son
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Sorry posting has been so light.  I’m in the middle of fighting with my program and also trying to write up a proposal.  Both activities are rather time-consuming.

We went to check on baby bird last night.  It was sitting in the box/nest and doing well.  I was actually very surprised.  I expected it to be gone and/or dead.  I was therefore feeling really good about the whole thing, thinking we’d done a good deed for our sparrow friend.  I was feeling more confident that it was going to make it.

Before we left the grocery store, we went to take another peak.  I mentioned to the younger son that we should rearrange the grass (which was drying up) to cover up the birdie a bit more.  Younger son got overly enthusiastic and scared poor birdie out of the nest.

And that’s when everything went wrong.  Birdie can fly short distances, low to the ground.  So it did that…and landed directly in front of a car which was stopped.  Apparently the person in the car had stopped to watch us.  I turned around and pondered briefly if I should go after it…and then the driver started driving at the moment…right over our birdie.

Both younger son and I must’ve had horrified looks on our faces because the driver stopped and laughingly said, “What?  Did I hit it or something?” I don’t think he realized at all what it was like to watch that.  I replied (probably rather angrily), “No, you ran it over.”  He kind of seemed surprised and said, “I didn’t see it.”

Of course he didn’t…it was right in front of his tire.

So birdie didn’t make it.  Younger son immediately said he killed it and was starting to cry.  I told him it wasn’t his fault.  (I’d already saved said bird from being run over twice before we got it the new nest.)  That being said, I feel guilty for not running out and telling him to stop before he’d moved.  Of course, realistically, I only had a second to react, and I just wasn’t fast enough.  There’s plenty of guilty feelings going around here.  I’m already missing going to check on our little friend, and I keep saying that at least he got a couple more days than he likely would have.

All that being said, it makes me appreciate having younger son around.  Unlike the older son, he’s always taking me on ‘adventures’.  A few years back, we saved a baby rabbit.  He will want to stop in the middle of winter and go on a random hike through the park.  He forces me to stop thinking about everything else in life and pay attention to the stuff in front of me much more than I do without him.  I’m sad things didn’t turn out well on this adventure, but at least we tried, and we dealt with all of it together.

The younger son’s nickname ought to be Diego June 15, 2012

Posted by mareserinitatis in younger son.
Tags: bird, younger son
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I picked up the younger boy from daycare after work.  The plan was to run two errands and then pick up pizza on the way home.  However, we were delayed at our first stop.  At the grocery store three block from our house, the younger son noted a baby bird in the parking lot.  We followed it around for a bit, and realized that 1) he couldn’t fly well enough to get back to his nest, 2) Mama was doing her best to keep the crows away from him and keep him fed, and 3) he had this horrible tendency to hop into traffic unless we were standing close by.

(Why do baby birds always look mad?)

The younger boy kept an eye on him while I went inside and bought a couple of tin cooking pans.  I thought that we could at least put him in one and let mama keep feeding him.  At least that way he’d stay out of traffic.  No go.  He didn’t like the pan and was able to hop out in short order.  I tried calling the local zoo, who said I should call the Game and Fish Dept.  They, of course, were closed until next Monday.  I called a friend who is has a vet tech degree (and dealt with more exotic species).  No luck.

In the meantime, I pointed out to younger son that when Mama was getting close to the baby, he’d start chirping and she’d come over to feed him.  The younger boy, of course, felt we must bring him home and love him and cuddle him and give him a bath…then asked how to bathe a bird.  I kept telling him that Mama was still taking care of him, and if we brought him home, he would very likely die.  I called Mike and we talked about it, and I suggested bringing him home and getting a ‘nest’ set up…then I could bring him back after dark when there was no traffic.  Mike had a better idea: he found a shoebox, put a brick in it (to keep it from blowing away in a strong wind), and filled it with grass and weeds.  Since we were only three block away, he ran it over, and we got baby bird into it.

Mama found him a couple minutes later and started bringing food over to him.  Also, she started keeping an eye out for crows.  We left to get dinner (because it was well past the time we were supposed to have been home and had dinner).  On our way back home, we checked back in on the impromptu nest.  Baby bird was happily snuggled between the brick and the side of the box, almost completely hidden in the grass.  It opened one eye when we came up to the box, but quickly closed it and fell back asleep.

I think the younger son was disappointed that he didn’t get a new pet bird, but I think he understands that this is his best chance for making it.  The younger son said the only thing better would be to find a large grassland, devoid of any other animals.  He could be right.