Operation Chick Drop

There is a bird's nest right outside Reagan's window. Did I ever mention that Reagan is in LOVE with birds? And she thinks the birds outside her window are hers. Every season there are new hatchlings "tweet tweeting" in the mornings... it's adorable.

Anyways, yesterday I was outside in my... what should I call it?.... patio area? I was cleaning up when I heard a thump. I turned and saw that a nestling had landed in a bucket. (I had to get the terminology right, so I googled it. In case anyone else is fact obsessed like me: A hatchling is a recently hatched baby bird, a nestling is a bird that hasn't left the nest yet, and a fledgling is a bird that has already left the nest, but isn't weaned yet. But a chick is the name for any sort of baby bird.)

Anyhoo... I know, I'm losing you all.....

Reagan wanted to pick him up. Grant started crying. And I put him safely in a bowl of tissue paper.

Now what?

 We just had to put him back into the nest. So, while I'm being attacked by all of the neighbor kids who want to see the bird, I go knock on my neighbor's door. She's a genious. Together I was sure we could think of something.

It didn't take long. We fashioned an ice cream scooper into a pvc pipe. Here is Jen doing a trial run. We had to practice this for a while to make sure it was do-able. You can't even see the nest in this picture, but it's right there under the gutter.

 

Here's the little guy in the ice cream scooper ready to go home. Aw, we never named him. I think I'll call him Peep... because that's what he did the whole time. I think he was scared TO DEATH.

 And he wasn't the only scared one. His mom sat perched on the opposite roofline watching the entire time. She flew into her nest a couple times, then back to watch. She had a worm in her mouth for little Peep.

It was all so heartbreaking!

 Now we were ready for the real thing. I ran outside and held a pillow in case he fell again.

Don't judge the hair, or jammies. I've got no one to impress, remember, I'm alone.

 Oh my goodness... looking at this picture makes me nervous. I am deathly afraid of heights, so brave Jen had to tackle this one, alone! Here she is leaning out the window.

She got the scooper into the slot, but little Peep got stuck! He was peeping like crazy. And I'm sure his mom almost dropped her worm. But Jen's mothering instincts kicked in and she was determined to save him. So, Tracy took the pillow from me so I could go hold Jen with a death grip by her pants, while she reached out to the nest. Yes, she reached all the way out and put the Peep into his nest. I couldn't even stand in front of the screen-less window. (I really need some heights therapy).

So, it was successful... thankfully, considering we had an audience of neighborhood kids. And thankfully we never had to use the pillow.

It may sound overly dramatic... but that's only because it was.

Trust me, I do wish I could blog about more exciting things, but this is truly about as exciting as it gets around this neck of the woods.