IN THE GARDEN Jigsaw Puzzles 2

AS we were heading out to walk our dog one morning we almost stepped on a newly hatched Cedar Waxwing, when we knelt down to see if it was okay we discovered 4 more. There was a wicked thunderstorm the night before so we figured they were blown out of their nest, they were scrawny with just little patches of fuzz on them but they appeared to be fine.We spotted a nest in the pine tree that they were lying under but it was way to high up for anyone to get to so I went inside to grab a basket which we placed them in and then hung from a high branch. After walking the dog we sat at the picnic table where we had a good view of the tree and waited to see if one of the parents showed up. Eventually one of them did but it would not go near the basket and flew away even though they were hungry. We continued to watch but the parent never returned so it was up to us to either feed them or let them starve. We had no idea of what to feed them and they were still to young for anything solid. so I came up with the idea of soaking bread in water and with a pair of tweezers I picked tiny little pieces from the soaked bread and shoved it down thier gaping throats, one of them, probably the last to hatch was to weak to fight off the others and was used as a stepping stool in the feeding frenzy so it was taken out of the basket and fed seperately, this seemed to satisfy them and me because I knew that they at least had one vital nessessity of survival, (water). We went back into the house and watched from a more discreet area in the hope that the parent would return but no such luck. So began the raising of 5 helpless birds that needed to be fed every ten minutes. Thank god they slept through the night because fearing predaters we brought them in every evening and then back out in the morning. When they were stronger they were taken from the basket and placed on a tree branch where they would peck at little insects throughout the day to supplement the food that we were giving them which was the same bread and water, whatever little insects we could find and small pieces of dew worms , when they began spitting the worms out we switched to everything from small pieces of cooked pasta, boiled eggs for the protien and pieces of cherries that my sister had brought over, (she's holding one of them in the picture above) Like the insects on the branches they would try to eat this stuff on their own which was cute to watch because they still had a hard time getting their eyes and beaks coordinated which sometimes resulted in them lying their faces sideways on the ground to pick it up, or chasing it across the grass when their beaks would miss and knock it away from them. Sometimes they wanted more food than what I had brought out so I would have to go back in to get more, at these times I would put them in a shallow box with the bottom cut out of it (the kind you get with a 12 pack of cola) and tell my dog to guard them which he would do by lying on the grass with his nose against the side of the box until I came back out, it was as if they were his babies, when we walked him at the end of the evening the first thing he did when he got home was go over and sniff each bird as if counting them to make sure they were all there. By this time we had abandond the basket which was replaced by an old hamster cage that we had in the shed, I removed the lid and made a nice soft bed of dried grass in the bottom. The first night I placed them on the grass they actually fluttered their way up and perched on the rim of the cage and thats were they spent their evenings until they learned how to fly, once this began I kept them in the house more often which made it easier to find them when they crash landed and after all this time I didn't want some cat finding them before I did. It was only a couple of days later when we turned out the lights to go to bed that we heard one of the birds flying which was unusual since it was dark, so we turned the kitchen light back on only to find it perched on the kitchen light which was directly over the table, it was taken down and put back on the cage but as soon as the light went out again it flew right back, this pattern was repeated once more and rather than moving it again we just laid a thick layer of papers on the table and went to bed. It's ironic that our light has 5 arms on it which hold 5 bulbs and by the end of the next day it also adorned 5 birds. The next morning was one of relief and sadness, they were all flying really well and they could now feed themselves well enough to survive so we decided they were ready to be released, we put them in the cage and for the first time we put the lid on it then took them outside, when the lid was removed this overwhelming sadness came over me as I watched them fly into the trees and at the same time a sense of pride that they had all survived and were able to fly the coop so to speak together. Only one returned that day for one last feeding and then it was off again.I still have a feather that one of them lost in the house as well as many memories , two of the best are remembering them landing on our shoulders when they were just learning to fly and the time we found one of them cozying up to the kettle for warmth.

IN THE GARDEN Jigsaw Puzzles 2

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