First of all, let me assure you that at MY age having twins is totally impossible. There. Got that cleared up.
A few days ago I was out trimming my Miss Kim lilac that sits at the corner of my house right by the garage door. Miss Kim is supposed to be one of those miniature lilac bushes but somebody forgot to tell that to this bush. This year it grew way out of bounds and was spectacular when it bloomed. So I hauled my electric trimmer out and was busily hacking away making the branches fly, standing back and admiring my work and then trimming some more. As I worked my way around to the front of the bush I took a swipe and as the branches fell away I just about choked - I had just missed cutting into a bird's nest by inches. Mama bird was of course not there - she must have flown away when I first started trimming at the back of the tree. As I gathered my courage and peered into the nest I saw four little blue eggs about the size of jelly beans. I carefully finished trimming the remainder of the bush, put my tools away and hoped that Mama bird would come back to her eggs.
I checked back several hours later and there she was sitting on her nest. Brave little thing. She is a chipping sparrow - a very hardy, dedicated mother bird. I've been checking back about twice a day and yesterday morning what should I find but two little gaping mouths waiting to have bugs poked into them. Mama was out hunting so I got a good look in the nest. Three of the eggs had hatched and unfortunately it looked like one hadn't made it as there was no movement. At that point there was still one egg to go. I checked again last night when she was off the nest and the unmoving baby had disappeared so I'm assuming she had pushed it out of the nest. Still one egg to go and two gaping mouths. It's amazing how wide those mouths can open. There's not much bird there - it's all beak.
I went out to check this morning and Mama is sitting on the nest so I'll have to check later. My greatest fear is that I had removed so much protection from the nest when I cut away the branches, and with all the bad weather and horrible heat that we've had lately it would affect the babies. So far that hasn't seemed to happen.
So anyway, don't send baby clothes - send bugs and worms!!
Love Lena
3 comments:
~~~ I don't know if those will print...virtual worms 8)
Congratulations, my friend! Wow! Twins, yet! I'd send you a big package of the army worms from the campground, but I've been told that they taste so nasty that birds won't eat them! The only thing that eats them is goats. Sorry I can't be of more help!
And about my picture loading problem .......I'm sure it's the iffy connection. I am connecting through my phone, and most days my cell connection doesn't even show up on the phone, so it's weak! I will just continue to do what I can, and maybe take a trip into the coffee shop once a week. I need good coffee anyhow!
Marge
Have you named the babies yet? I know you are glad you didn't hurt them. Sparrows can be annoying, but they are still God's creatures.
Enjoy watching them grow.
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