Baby Birds

Posted by meli on Friday, April 25, 2008 in kidisms, social justices and controversial topics, wild adventures | 1 comment

We were enjoying a wonderful warm weather day outside yesterday. It was gorgeous out there. The kids were running around, riding bikes, digging in the dirt. They have boundaries when we are outside, so they were, of course, right at the edge of that boundary up by the police sign (the bike patrol officers live just 2 building down from us, what fun for the kids). Owen comes running back from the sign as fast as his legs could carry him with this very worried look on his face....

"Mommy, Mommy. MOMMY!! I have to tell you something, it is VERY important"

"What is it sweetie"

"Those kids over there by the police sign are trying to kill those baby birds"

"What? What baby birds"

"Just come on. It's important. Hurry" (have I mentioned how MUCH I love my kiddos!!!)

So I go up there with him, and just as I'm getting closer, the two little kids he was talking about run into their house. Both Rylan and Larson start hammering on about how those kids knocked the baby birds out of their nest and were talking about stuffing them into a plastic bag so they would die.

WHAT!?

Sure enough, there was one baby bird on the grass, right where the two kids were before running off. My boys pointed to the bird nest, and I asked if they knew if there were any other babies. They told me that the kids said they knocked three of them out of their nest, so I rummaged through the weeds right under the nest, and yep ... 2 more babies. How heartbreaking!!!

I called the wildlife center here, but it had just closed. I listened to the advice they give about baby song birds, and they said that birds don't have a very keen sense of the smell. Apparently, according to them, the whole "if the Momma bird smells human touch on the babies, she'll reject them" thing is a myth. The recording suggested putting the babies back in the nest, and watching for 2-3 hours to see if the parents would come back. They said 99% of the time the parents come back.

They were so tiny, and SO cute. Just starting to feather, cute lil beaks, big huge eyes. Well, you see the picture up there ... adorable, right?!

I do hope they are going to be ok!

We told the bike patrol officer about it so he could keep an eye on the nest (it's located RIGHT outside their front door, up in the building siding). The kids that knocked them out and tried to kill them live right next door to the officers, so he went over to have a little "chat" with them.

It makes me so sad to know there are kids capable of that level of meanness. *sigh* Their parents weren't home when it happened (about 8pm), and they still weren't there when Nick and I walked up to check the nest again at about midnight. We planned to talk to the parents about it (and hope that would do some good), but they never showed up. Very sad.