Baby Birds In Flight Training

Posted by: Brenda Kula | June 29, 2008

See this baby bird peeking out? This was the beginning of a continuing ordeal yesterday evening. And on into today thus far.

I’ve been seeing photos of baby birds on other blogs for months. And I would think, oooh, I want to see some baby birds in my yard! (Um-hm)

I took this photo after I finally figured out what Charlie Ross, the male Yorkie, has been mesmerized (literally glued) by at the dining room window for the past week. (He broke this same window with his head months ago going ga-ga over a squirrel.)

When we’d go outside, instead of running straight to the pond rocks as he usually does, (and I posted about earlier this week) the past few days he’s been running to the pole with this big birdhouse on top right outside the dining room. So yesterday I glimpsed this baby, ran in and grabbed the camera, zipped back out and snapped this photo. So happy I have finally snagged a baby bird photo…

Then about two hours later, we were watching a Netflix movie. And about the middle of the movie, the dogs kept itching to go out. So out in my nightgown I go. It isn’t dark yet. We’re walking down the path and suddenly the dogs go berserk outside the dining room window. And these baby birds start falling out of the nest!

Of course the dogs are crazed at this point. I’m bending down trying to grab up baby birds, terrified the dogs will hurt them. I get one, run to the door, yell for my husband, "Help, emergency!" The dogs are yipping and yapping and jumping at me, trying to get to the baby bird in my hand.

"What is it?" I hear from the depths of the house.

"Just hurry up!"

So here we are, in nightgown and pajamas, dogs barking madly, trying to cram baby birds back into the nest close to the roof line of our house. My husband is yelling, "It won’t stay in!" I can’t reach it, so it’s up to him to do it.

And they would hit the ground and start hopping, dogs hysterical. Me hysterical. He doesn’t have any shoes on. And folks, we all know I don’t have a spot of grass on the side of my house. It is all gravel and rock and walkways. I of course have my sensible red house shoes on.

What a scene that must have been! Oh, would I like a video of that debacle!The parents are flitting about us, flapping their wings and screeching. I’m assuming at this point they are wrens. The ones with the "white eyebrow look" to them.

So this morning I go out with the dogs, hoping beyond hope I don’t have to go through anything like that again. And the parents have apparently moved their babies to the back yard birdhouses. The dogs are barking. And I see baby birds hopping and darting and attempting to fly again out in the back gardens!

So I start trying to scoop them up and finally shoo them into the bushes, grab up the dogs, and head for the door. It seems every time we go out now, the birds are in "flight training mode" and we have to scramble around with the dogs trying to get them back in. I shudder to think about Clyde the cat finding them!

I looked everywhere (and yes, the bookshelves were my first stop) for my Birds Of Texas book. How is it that I have all these books arranged, and the one time I desperately need one RIGHT NOW, I can’t for the life of me get my hands on it?

But of course Google is a marvelous help. Seems these baby birds have little flight training lessons. And it is common for them to fall from the nest. And no, it doesn’t matter if you have to pick one up. The parents are not that sensitive to smell. (Haven’t you all heard, as I have, that if you touch the babies of various species, the parents will abandon them?) Or did I just dream this up while in my frenzied state?

Alas, the parents apparently did not. And I hope, hope, hope these sweet babies learn to fly soon. I’m worn out.

So, Garden Joy 4 Me, you can laugh at me now. She is going through a similar, but much more horrid experience (and it is hysterically amusing!) with a wily raccoon in her attic. The poor woman is beside herself with frustration. So run over there and read what she’s going through, if you’re a sadist like me who loves to laugh at such desperate matters concerning menopausal women like myself.

Isn’t nature wonderful!

Posted in Gardening & Nature

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Responses

LOL Brenda! You sound like me. I would have been right out there with you trying to save those birds.

I’ve known for a while that you could touch baby birds, but all my life I was told you couldn’t. Years ago, I think some mom or dad told their kids that, so they wouldn’t mess with them and it spread like wildfire. Sounds like something I’d tell mine

Hopefully peace will come to the backyard soon

hugs,

rue
By: rue on June 29, 2008

at 11:05 am

Glad you were able to rescue them! I just see the two of you stumbling around in your lounge wear ….hehehe! I wish I was the neighbor peeking out my window Rosie
By: Rosie’s Whimsy on June 29, 2008

at 11:28 am

Glad you were able to rescue them! I just see the two of you stumbling around in your lounge wear ….hehehe! I wish I was the neighbor peeking out my window Rosie
By: Rosie’s Whimsy on June 29, 2008

at 11:28 am

Glad you were able to rescue them! I just see the two of you stumbling around in your lounge wear ….hehehe! I wish I was the neighbor peeking out my window Rosie
By: Rosie’s Whimsy on June 29, 2008

at 11:28 am

I hope the wee ones take off on their own very soon — it’s hard being a surrogate Mama!
By: Nancy Bond on June 29, 2008

at 12:07 pm

I hope the wee ones take off on their own very soon — it’s hard being a surrogate Mama!
By: Nancy Bond on June 29, 2008

at 12:09 pm

That’s pretty funny. I can just picture the scene.

I purposely don’t have birdhouses or a feeder in my yard because I’m afraid my dogs would just attack the birds. I usually get a nest or two anyway in a hanging plant or in the shrubbery.

So far I’ve not had to rescue any babies.
By: Okie Sister on June 29, 2008

at 12:27 pm

I know finding the birds in flight training with your dogs barking was not funny at the time, but I couldn’t help laughing as I imagined the scene. I think it might have made a good comedy show.
By: Jane Marie on June 29, 2008

at 12:28 pm

Hi Brenda!

I could see every bit of that scene and then some! We have Wrens in our big white birdhouse on the back porch. When we’re having meals out there, she sits on the rail and fusses at us. The babies may have flown by now. We didn’t see the mama, yesterday evening, at supper.

J’s mother found a baby Cardinal that was abandoned. She brought him indoors and nursed him back to health. She soon tried to release him, to no avail. Pete liked his new home and lived there until he was the ripe old age of 18! Singing and entertaining everyone.

Hope you’re having a lovely Sunday.
By: Pat on June 29, 2008

at 12:36 pm

Oh, what a mess you all got into, and what a wonderful description! I’m awfully glad to know that it won’t hurt to pick up the babies– yes, I always heard that. Glad to be enlightened!

Hugs,

CurtissAnn
By: CurtissAnn on June 29, 2008

at 1:11 pm

Hi Brenda,

What a time you had.

You did not imagine it as I had always heard if you touch a baby bird the parents will abandon it.

Saying prayers for your sweet little friends.
By: Barb on June 29, 2008

at 1:27 pm

Life is good isn’t it!
By: LetsPlant on June 29, 2008

at 1:31 pm

That is too funny. Reminds me of the time a baby mocking bird fell out of it’s nest here. I was out side in my pj’s with oven mits on my hands being dive bombed by the mamma bird. I learned later the birds don’t have a good sense of smell. I was under the same assumption you were.
By: deb on June 29, 2008

at 3:52 pm

What a great story! I wonder how the babies would get back into the nest if you weren’t there? I expect they’ll get their wings soon – in the meantime, keep up the good work!
By: Jill on June 29, 2008

at 5:02 pm

Oh …. my ….. GOD !!!!!

Brenda … thank you for posting this and giving me a break from that F.B. Godfather raccoon .. the entire neighborhood (we live on a cul du sac, so it is a small community .. gossip is like wildfire here .. are sympathetic to our plight and think this jerk we hired is a JERK !

But the baby bird plight .. better you than me … because if I eat any more brownies (ate the last of them today .. cracking headache with it too .. thunder storm, chocolate, and yes .. that time of the month ??? what the hell ???? .. as you can read I am still INSANE and we have yet to deal with Raccoon Man JERK .. cross your fingers i don’t climb aboard him and beat him with his own damn wire cage and can of cat food !

PS …. hope things are better there now ?

Joy … madwoman
By: Joy on June 29, 2008

at 5:10 pm

Oh Brenda, you’re a bird saver. How very sweet! Hope you’re having a beautiful Sunday. Shelia
By: Shelia on June 29, 2008

at 5:17 pm

Oh my, Brenda, what a frantic sight! I’m glad things are under control now and that no bird babies (or humans) were injured in the hilarious scene you described!

Our baby robins have been so much fun to watch. Finally now, they mostly seem to be on their own. We’ve enjoyed watching their progress from nestlings to fledglings to independent young adults that we can’t distinguish anymore from their parents.
By: linda on June 29, 2008

at 7:15 pm

Geez, I would of been really nervous picking up the baby birds… I thought ALL birds would abandon their young if touched by a human. But I guess I’m mistaken. xoxo, Joanna
By: Joanna {sweet finds} on June 29, 2008

at 9:04 pm

Oh poor baby birds! I bet they were scared! My dog was going crazy at the back door last night just as it was getting dark. I opened the door and he darted out and the next thing I see is him chasing a RAT!!! Yuck! I swear the rat was almost as big as him!
By: cindy ~ My Romantic Home on June 30, 2008

at 12:11 am

At least your story has a happy ending. Something “got” all of the tiny eggs in my patio birdhouse this year. All I found was shards of shells on the grown. Poor Mama wren.
By: Barbara Jacksier on June 30, 2008

at 6:19 am

Hi Brenda and I’m so glad you popped in today! Hope you had a cookie! Yes, I’ve tried the Snapple and it’s devine! Be a sweetie today. Shelia
By: Shelia on June 30, 2008

at 10:48 am

Oh, how sweet! Those baby birds are too cute.

Thanks for coming by to see me & leaving me a message & for your email!

Rhoda
By: Rhoda on June 30, 2008

at 10:50 am

Oh my gosh, I was laughing so hard at your description of saving the babies from the dogs. I would have been doing the same thing. My Lucy would have been after them too. I hope those babies get flying soon….very soon. lol
By: Darlene on June 30, 2008

at 4:10 pm