So I’m adding something new to my resume: Bird chaser. :-
Monday was supposed to be a relaxing day. I had intended to paint the house some more, but the weather (yes, the tropical low which has provided nine inches to DC has dumped about 2.5 inches in our area in the last two days) has been uncooperative.
But I decided to get up early to go into the studio to do a couple of errands and download some files to edit Saturdays wedding (another blogged wedding is on the way!) While taking out the dogs before going to the studio, though, I saw two baby chicks from our house wren’s nest that hangs in the red maple near the corner. I have had my share of baby chick stories (I nursed one back to health back in ’89, helped two learn how to fly about six years ago, etc.) so I was more sure that leaving them alone was going to be better than doing nothing.
So I went to the studio and got my tasks done. After a stop at the store I came home and saw the two chicks still sitting in the same place – right in front of the gutter downspout extension (a ten foot piece of 3″ PVC) and was glad it wasn’t raining really hard or these two fellas were going swimming.
I went into the house and told Diana to come have a look at the babies. She did and we marveled for awhile, but then got concerned. We get a lot of stray cats around here, and live close enough to wildlife that we see foxes and other predators nearby all the time. This got us a little concerned. And… we decided to put the babies back up in the bird house.
Now, those who know me know I’m 6’2″ and at least 200 pounds. I’m no small man. So when “we” decided the babies needed to go back into their nest, and since Diana had no shoes on, this meant that I was elected bird catcher.
Imagine these little chicks… okay, here’s a picture of one who was elusive enough to hide behind the downspout block…
So here’s this big guy flailing around on the ground with big hands, big feet and crawling on the ground to get one little bitty two-inch long wren chick. Since no pictures were taken of this feat, you’ll have to settle on your visions. After I caught the first one, I was too gentle with it and it would jump out of my hand. So I cupped my left hand over my right so it wouldn’t get away. Now putting it back into the nest… I open my hands right next to the opening to the nest and PLOP, the little critter jumps out of my hand and five feet back to the ground. Thankfully there’s grass and clippings to break the fall. Not that it matters!! They had to have jumped or fallen out before!
So, three tries later I get smarter and create a cone with my hand and put the bird into it so his head peeks out the top and cover it with my other hand. As I get to the bird house again, I put the open end directly in front of the opening and he goes in – sort of. One of his wings gets caught on the opening and he squeaks a bit at me. So I adjust the wings and in he goes. I sigh a happy relief that I’ve preserved the life of at least ONE of the birds and go after the other one.
This one apparently was watching the entire chase of its brother and runs AROUND THE TREE to avoid me. Now you already have this vision of me crawling around on the ground chasing a baby chick, now add to that a vision of a tiny bird outwitting me by running around the base of a tree that I cannot get near because of the downspout extension on one side, low branches on one side, and my own lumbering bigness trying to avoid stepping on the poor fella. So as elusive as he was, he ends up standing right next to my shoe (two inches) and panting away while I’m looking down thinking “there needs to be an easier way to be Mr. Nice Guy.”
A few more maneuvers later, I capture the second chick and duplicate the cone transfer into the bird house nest. Thinking I’d done my best, I look to Diana who seems about as happy as I am that we have kept the baby birds from becoming cat snacks. And then PLOP, one of the jumps OUT of the nest… not falls… JUMPS!!!
This is when we decided it was meant to be. I later learned that they abandoned the nest due to some bug infestation. I won’t even go into that.
I took a camera out later and saw one of them headed for cover under the bushes in front of the house. I later found that both were under the side deck (which has 1″ lattice – no cat can get into that) and were still being fed by momma. Here’s a parting shot of the baby bird who was camera shy at first.
I’m not chasing baby birds anymore. And please don’t call me for advice. I’m not good at it. :-[