Pinky

our new little friends
Originally uploaded by radioflyer007

We've been meaning to take down the old wooden birdhouse that has been attracting a lot of bird activity in our backyard. At least the evidence of ubiquitous bird dropping was giving us the indication that there were lots of feathered friends frequenting the box hanging on the exterior of the chimney.

Yesterday, Air Boss was showing a landscaper the scope of work that needed to be done on our backyard. As I followed the guys, I noticed a small pink thing on the edge of our patio. The pink thing was MOVING.

"Funny, I didn't know that little frogs started out pink," I had thought to myself. Then I saw the pitiful flap of a small tiny wing. It was a bird that was no more than a day old and it was trying desperately to move somewhere.

I don't recall if I shrieked (which wouldn't be totally out of character for me when I'm faced with some hurt animal) or casually called out (which would have been my hopeful reaction) to Air Boss to come and help the bird out.

We figured he must have fallen out of the birdhouse. How he survived a ten foot drop was nothing short of a miracle but then we noticed the bag of top soil in the corner. That probably broke his fall (and perhaps some fragile bones).

Air Boss got a ladder, took the birdhouse down, and the landscaper pried off the roof of the little house to see if there was a nest inside. Lo and behold - Pinky had two siblings.

We didn't know if the mother bird was still caring for her chicks but the wooden house was carefully placed back near the chimney (not quite so high this time) with a newly crafted ledge on the slope of the chimney. Should Pinky decide to bungee jump (without the bungee or wings with feathers), hopefully the ledge would prevent him from tumbling down to the ground.

This morning I went out to check on the bird family. This time, I recall quite clearly that I let out a shriek. I nearly stepped on a quite dead Pinky. His little featherless body was smashed with some bird juice surrounding his tiny body. The ledge apparently didn't work.

I went back into the house, slid the patio door closed, and closed the blinds. Yup - that was sure going to take care of the carcass on the ground. I claimed to a surprised Air Boss, "I don't want Lolli to see it and get freaked out."

"Aren't you going to clean it up?" he asked. No waay. No siree.

I never made it to the birdhouse to check on the other birds until later on in the afternoon (after Air Boss had graciously cleaned up the aftermath). Pinky's siblings were fine and as a matter of fact, another bird had hatched. They were all alive and moving. The two older ones were opening their mouths for food. Sorry. No worms in our parched backyard.

Pinky's younger sibling was even tinier, pinker, and scrawnier than him [after posting this link, I've taken a second look at the photo . . . I believe there are four surviving birds].

Needless to say, we believe that momma bird shoved Pinky out of the house in his injured state where he fell to his death. Survival of the fittest? Don't know.

But what I do know is that I'll be very careful to look where I step tomorrow morning when I check on the chicks tomorrow morning.