Augie and Vi love to play baby bird. They’ll look up and open their mouths, and we share a bit of a snack, or sometimes just pretend to drop insects into their maws. Last week we took a little field trip to see some real baby birds in a tiny nest next to the back door of our friend Peggy, who lives just two blocks away.
As we got near we saw the mother bird (something small; a wren maybe?) fly from the nest up into the trees. We waited outside the fence, but she didn’t return. So we entered the yard and Pa lifted up each grandchild to peer into the nest. I took pictures, which we looked at later on the computer so we could talk more about what we saw. Only one baby bird had its mouth open (and of course it closed up just as I took my shot). I found myself wondering, was this one more aggressive than the others? Or had this one missed getting fed? (We didn’t point out the fact that one tiny baby had already perished and been pushed from the nest along with an egg. That's a nature lesson for when they're a little bit older.)
The tiny, huddled birds didn’t hold our kids’ interest for long, but it was a nice bit of nature right here in the city. We can supplement the field trip by looking at nest cams on the internet. If the babies survive, we may return to see how they've grown...and to try out Peggy's wonderful swing again!
