Baby bird

The baby sparrow that
fell out of a Blue jay's
beak today
black, yellow, and mauve marker,
charcoal and pink coloured pencil on bond paper
4 x 6 inches
Barbara Muir © 2009

Our little backyard was the scene of high drama today
as a blue jay stole a baby sparrow from the nest under
our eaves and ate it. That would have been high drama
enough, but later in the afternoon it came back to steal
another one, and I told the dog to bark at the jay. The thief
dropped the baby all right, and there we were on the horns
of a dilemma. What to do?

My father raised a baby robin, and so did my niece. I wasn't
around for my Dad's childhood, but watching my niece
raise that bird taught me an important lesson. If you know
where the bird comes from, by all means give it back. Otherwise
be ready to feed it either ground up worms or hamburger
puree every hour or so for a couple of months.
So Sam constructed a kind of crib out of the bottom of
a box of tissues, and paper towels, put on my winter gloves,
lifted the baby into the box.

He hauled our two story ladder out of the garage, and I held
it while he scaled up with baby bird, to try and put it
back. At the top, a very long way up, baby kept trying
to get back out. It had little wings, but did not have all
of its feathers. So Sam put it farther in and climbed down.
Whew. We then read on the net that we'd done exactly
the right thing. Good.

I love blue jays, but we'll have to get the marauding one
some peanuts so it can leave the baby birds alone.

Tonight I saw the movie Demons and Angels -- action
packed, but after the incidents with the birds, it seemed tame.

My drawing is an imperfect rendering of what the bird looked
like. I didn't think to take its picture.

Have a taking-care-of-nature day.