The Eleventh Letter

The past month has taught us a lesson about mother nature here on 13th Road. One afternoon I discovered a bird's nest being built in my front door wreath. Wow, how neat (I totally sounded like my dad there!) maybe there will be eggs! And soon after, there were! 5 cute little bird eggs popped up over night. Mama bird watched over them and only left the nest when we opened the door- so we knew she was close by. Of course, we had to name them. James chose the first 3, and I, the last 2. :)

As we eagerly awaited to see what would happen- the eggs finally hatched and there were 5 small, funny looking creatures tucked in right up against my door. I could faintly hear them squeaking and watched their heads pop up hoping I was bringing food. It was so cute :)

My neighbors came to take pictures, and we were all routing for the babies. One night, after James got home late from studying, things took a turn for the worse. He found a cat running away and 5 babies on the ground. He quickly came to their rescue, scooped them up and placed them back in their nest. Somehow they all survived the fall!

The next morning I checked on Huey, Duey, Luey, Marilyn and Chuck and they seemed to be ok. But Mama Bird was no where to be found. And she never showed up again. My theory is that she sacrificed herself to save the lives of her little babies.

It was amazing to watch these animals start from just eggs, and turn into active (and messy!) birds. I'm sorry to say this story doesn't have a happy ending though. Without Mama Bird to keep them warm, the babies didn't make it through the 2 days of freezing weather we just had. It breaks my heart because they might have survived had the weather stayed warm. I was all ready to feed them with an eye dropper and raise them myself. It's a hard world out there for small fragile creatures- but for short amount of time they were around, they were sure admired. Rest Is Peace little Huey, Duey, Luey, Marilyn and Chuck.