Yesterday, I promise to buckle down, do some work and things that NEEDED to get done.  Sure, it was a Saturday, and I had originally planned to have a few girls over for dinner, but I really needed to work.  I woke up early with a headache and too much on my to-do list, so I called off all plans and got to work.  First, to mow the lawn.  Mind you, since we live on 48 acres (shared with my Mom and little brother in a separate house), there’s a lot of lawn.  As I made my first round, I happened to look down right ahead of me and there it was.  Head barely above the height of the grass, a bright yellow beak.  A baby bird!  We looked all over for it’s nest, pretty sure the wind had swept it away the night before.  With no nest to be found, we perched it in the middle of a tree and I finished my mowing.  The Mom was flying overhead, landing in the tree above the baby and squawking to let us know – she’s got this.  Leave her baby alone!

baby bird

So yesterday evening I decided to check on it.  Make sure it was still there, and alive.  With the birdie nowhere to be found anywhere around the tree, I found him (I’m not sure it’s a him, but to me, it is) half way down the yard, in the middle of a patch of bright sun light.  Crying.  It’s Mom now in a tree a bit closer.  I called my little brother out, told him to go digging for worms and we’d try to feed it.  Much to my surprise, it ate from us!  But!  In the midst of looking for worms, my brother turns over a patch of grass and finds…a nest of baby bunnies.  *palm face*.  I have stuff to get done!  I don’t have time to feed babies and worry about keeping them safe and away from the dogs!  I don’t want to be reliable if they don’t make it!  I wish I never would have found them and now I can’t stop worrying about them.  Spring is in full bloom and I am a huge animal lover – but nature makes me nervous.  I know nothing about birds and bunnies and the last thing I want to do is mess up the natural flow of how they work and have them be neglected and die because of me.  The pressure!

feeding a baby bird

baby bunnies, baby rabbits

We left the nest of bunnies and will not be going back to them, as to trace the dogs their way.  This morning, Skittles had the baby bird in her mouth.  He wasn’t dead or even hurt, as though she was now taking her turn to take care of him.  Only, that’s not allowed.  She’s a dog and her instinct will have the bird for dinner.  So now?  Now this baby bird is in a cat carrier on the front porch being fed worms every hour.  I did get some work done that I needed to get done, but not without my mind wandering and going outside every hour or so to check on a baby bird.  I know in the end, whatever happens to it is up to mother nature, but now I feel slightly responsible, and this?  This is why I don’t have children.

Skittles watching very closely as we fed the baby bird.

Scooby doing the same, on the other side of us.

  • http://www.alexbeadonphotography.com/blog Alexandra

    This is such a cute story and I love the photos that go along with it, you’ll have to keep us updated because now I’m worried for the poor thing haha :)

  • Gary Denton

    Stacey, I think we may have been separated at birth, a few years apart. A few weeks ago, a HUGE windstorm blew up in hour neighborhood and railed for hours. While there was no damage to property, my wife saw a duckling being bowled along the street, helpless against the wind, so of course we had to help it. I snatched him up and searched the local pond for the better part of an evening, then found where the ducks bed down at night. I left the l’il fellah there, walking away as one of the females circled near him as he cried out. I still worry about him. =D

    Shoulda gotten some pics…..