Fledgling

The other night I was walking home from a neighbors house (I've been feeding their dog while they are away), and as I passed our next door neighbors lawn I noticed a little baby bird sitting in the grass. Well, last year we had noticed a baby bird in our yard and didn't do anything and the neighborhood cat had gotten it by the next morning. The nurturer in me couldn't just sit idly by and let the same fate befall this cute little bird. So I found a tupperware box and fashioned a grass little nest in there and scooped the bird up inside.

Later that night I researched online what one should do if you "rescue" a bird, and was surprised to learn that most birds that are "rescued" are unnecessarily rescued. Apparently when a bird is a "fledgling" it falls out of the nest and hangs around for a few days or a couple of weeks, with the parents still keeping track of it, until it learns to fly. Whoopsie. I read further that it is a myth that if you touch a baby bird its mother will reject it (dodged that bullet), so I went and put the bird back where I had found it.

Imagine my surprise when the next morning I saw the bird belly up in the nieghbors flower bed. I am a baby bird killer.

So last night I was out playing with the dogs and I heard a loud chirp when I was near our tree. I looked and found a birds nest about eye level in our little tree. I made Blaine give me a shoulder ride so I could see in the tree. Nothing. No birds.

A little while later I noticed Swiper in hunters stance growing at the base of the tree. I went over to find two little fledglings in the grass. As soon as I moved the grass that was covering them they opened their mouths wide for some wormage. It was very cute. Unfortunately miniature schnauzers are bred to hunt small pray like mice and squirrels and so the dogs #1 goal in life is to attack these little birds, and now I feel personally responsible for their well being.

So how am I going to make it for however long these birds are on the ground without letting my dogs outside unattended? I am not sure. But those baby birds will be safe dang it.

Wish me luck!