Yesterday, when we came downstairs, Gary noticed one of the baby birds had fallen out of his nest, so Gary got a ladder while I held the baby bird in my shirt. The little fuzzy thing looked up at me and cheeped like please don't eat me. Gary very quickly put the baby back in the nest while mama robin was out searching for worms.
She has had it pretty easy with the worm hunt. Everyday I have worked digging and planting in my flower garden she has been very close to me waiting on the worms I would toss out to her. Gary set up the bird bath in the garden so she can have water and I just saw her using it this morning as I sat on the deck in the cool morning air.
As I was sitting there this morning, I noticed a small fuzzy bird in my garden around the bushes trying to fly. Yep you guessed it, baby bird who obviously had not fallen out of the nest was testing his flying gear. He could just hopp around and he could only hopp into the bush on the first branch. He kept trying and trying to hopp into my chair in the garden but kept falling short. At last he jumped up on the first branch then on to the seat of my chair and sat there. Mama Robin comes up he hopps down and she feeds him a worm. She keeps searching for worms with him hopping along beside her. I suppose he will learn, but at least she is a good mama, she didn't abandon him.
It is hard to know when to let go and let the "baby bird" learn from his own actions. You spend so much of your life keeping them warm, feeding them, protecting them that it makes it difficult to let them fly on their own. Like Mama Robin she knows he hasn't learned how to find his own worms yet and it is a scary world out there where a cat or dog could ponch on him because he isn't protected in the nest anymore. But she knows he will eventually fly, be on his own, making his own decisions, catching his own worms and one day building a nest with his mate for life.
Yes Robins mate for life how ever short that may be for a bird.
