Posted 4/16/2008 05:46:00 PM by Douglas

As with most stories in nature, the saga of the Mockingbirds in my back yard didn't have a happy ending. A week after that picture of the babies was taken, this is what they looked like. They grow up so fast:

They were growing fast, and soon to be kicked out of the nest. Maybe a little bit too soon. Saturday night Mom & Dad were causing a tremendous stir just inside the neighbor's fence. A quick peek inside revealed that one of the babies got into their yard and was quickly killed by the dog.

As sad as that is, it happens, and mom & dad had other obligations that they were totally neglecting while trying to scare a dog off the corpse of their dead baby. So I go next door, wrangle up the body, all the while hoping mom & dad focus up on their other chicky that has been perched on my fence during this ordeal:

While pure bedlam is going on next door with mom & dad and his dead brother, chirpy-boy here is trying to make like a hole in the air. Well, nightfall is looming and the meddling human decides chirpy-boy isn't going to make the night boppin' around on the ground, so I put on some gloves, scoop him up, and put him back in his nest. Maybe mom & dad will completely abandon him, but he's got a better chance at survival in the nest than he does on the ground, right? Right. So that was Saturday, and we wake up Sunday to find this in the yard:

So it's a big nothing. Out of three chicks, maybe one got away, one got killed by a dog, and one got ate by a cat. Such is life, but I watched, for weeks, how hard mom & dad worked to feed those three babies, and I have to feel some of their pain (or I wouldn't have scooped up baby-catfood #3 and put him back in his nest).

I don't know what the moral to the story is here.