It’s alive!” exclaimed Liz, one of my nieces who works as a scientist near Forestport, NY.
She and her younger sister, Phoenix, spied a tiny bird floundering intermittently in a puddle in their Forestport backyard.
Drawn to the little creature’s plight, and fearing it wouldn’t last the night, the young women rescued it.
First, they placed it in a nest nearby, thinking it might have fallen from there. However, that nest’s mama bird, and young inhabitants, ignored the little visitor, and then pushed it away! Liz and Phoenix noticed the nest’s inhabitants didn’t quite resemble the distressed bird.
“It must be a cowbird,” Liz commented. “The mom lays her eggs, then deposits them in other birds’ nests to be taken care of; but this time it seems it didn’t work.”
“I guess it’s up to us to foster this little orphan,” Liz said.
The sisters took in the little creature and the family decided to name it Birdie Sanders; recalling a whimsical scene of a bird visiting a likable politician.
Alternately, one sister petted and fed the barely moving animal, while the other watched for any adult bird that might be looking for a missing baby. “Nobody’s coming!” each observed as they took watch.
For the next few days, the sisters nurtured the tiny creature. They put it in a box with a tin of grass sod. They flipped a large laundry basket over the box to keep it safe. They added branch perches to help it feel a bit like its natural habitat.
Liz and Phoenix carefully cared for the little bird, even teaching it to eat on its own to prepare for its eventual flyaway.
Always they’d kept in mind that they couldn’t keep it, but could try to help it get well, teach it to survive on its own, and then send it on its way, back into the wild world where it belonged.
They indeed brought it back to health! When Liz was at work, Phoenix was always there for it, while she pondered what direction to take after high school in the ‘new normal’ world.
The little creature got big quickly and hopped about the house a little bit.
Anxiously the young women braced themselves for the time when their little feathered friend would leave them.
Luckily, the sisters’ mom managed to snap a photo of it, during its indoor exercise time, when it perched by a sign my nieces’ Dad, my nephew, a woodcrafter by avocation, had made with artistic Phoenix.
Eventually Liz observed “It’s a robin! The orange feathers coming in strong are a giveaway.”
Then it happened one day! Their feathered friend ‘flew the coop’!
Liz and Phoenix hoped it might come back sometimes to visit and get snacks, but that hasn’t happened; they think.
They won’t be able to tell if it’s him or another of his species, if someone stops by; so, it seems every time they spot a robin, they’ll call out “Hi’; just in case it’s him.
(c) August 2021 reproduced by permission of the editor of NATURE PLACE JOURNAL.
Photos are by family members.
clynjohnson 