Bye-Bye Birdie!

Right at daybreak, I am awakened by the chirping of two very hungry birds. The two little mockingbirds that I am fostering are growing like weeds and are learning many new things each day. But..their chirping starts at about 5am and for anyone who does not believe two little birds can create a massive racket have never lived with birds! These little fellows are loud! I had to move them from the small bird cage into the dog crate since they are quite mobile now. I carefully wrapped the entire crate with window screening. This served two purposes..one, the obvious, so they would not simply walk through the grating of the crate..and two, the window screening will not harm their developing wings. The new abode only lasted about four days as now they want out of this larger cage. I was taking them outside for a while each day just to acclimate them to the yard and I would let them have free range of parts of the house during the day. This bit of the house-flying did not work out too well since baby birds do not wear diapers. I was forever following behind them with a wet paper towel!

Today, however, Son moved the dog crate out into the yard! He put it on one of the benches in the rose garden and I opened the door. Knox and Shelby (the little birds) cautiously peered out of the door..and then....they joyously bolted through the crate door into the garden! They were free! It seems that even though they had daily treks outside, they knew this was "The Day!" They flitted from branch to branch, chirping all the way! I was elated! My babies were grown! They had flown the coop! Now, I was an empty-nester! It was a strange feeling watching them leave. Several people had mentioned that I would be lost without them being inside. I would miss the every thirty minute feedings and them calling for me every morning. Hmmmm..nope. There was no twinge of loneliness..no feeling of loss..no regrets seeing them fly away. Just the opposite, I was so happy! No more waking at the crack of dawn to loud chirps! No more cleaning up poopy cages! No more smishing crickets! Woohoo! I was free! I was free of an unneeded chore!

This evening, a thunderstorm blew in from the west. There was thunder, lightning and high wind. I looked out the front door and there were Knox and Shelby. Oh geez. I so thought this was over. The large dog crate sat in the middle of the rose garden..no way was I going to make a dash for that. Back in the little bird cage went the two birds. My goodness! I think they grew to be twice the size as when I let them free this morning..or..maybe these were not the same birds. After a few minutes of being inside, one of the birds flew up and landed on my shoulder..yep..that was Shelby. She was back. And Knox sat there with his mouth open waiting for a cricket......