For the Birds

Three Little Birds

Bird Feeder fixin's

Hard at work.

So proud!

A lone Stellar's Jay staking out the feeders.

A few days ago I opened the new bedroom drapes to a beautiful blue sky day. I went to the boys' room, said good morning to Ben, got Sam out of his crib, and all three of us went downstairs to start our day. We went through the normal morning routine of clean diapers/underwear, breakfast, making a lunch for Daddy, and packing snack bags for the boys. We hugged and kissed Daddy goodbye and I headed back upstairs to gather clothes for the boys and I. When I entered the master bedroom I saw something on my sparkling windows and my first thought was what bird dare defile my window with poo?! Upon closer inspection, I found it was from a bird though not poo - feathers. That could only mean one thing, bird crash! I looked down to the deck and where I expected to see the chalk outline of a single victim I saw three!!!! An entire family of finches (or maybe sparrows) was obliterated after a brief encounter with my new window!

Sam and I returned to the living room where Ben was occupied with PBS kids and called Brian at work to let him know that our windows had been christened in with the blood of three innocent birds. Ben looked out the window with me and promptly said, "I just want the birdies to fly away." Me too kiddo.

Brian mentioned the Bob Marley song titled "Three Little Birds" with the lyrics:

Rise up this mornin,

Smiled with the risin sun,

Three little birds

Pitch by my doorstep

Singin sweet songs

Of melodies pure and true,

Sayin, (this is my message to you-ou-ou:)

'Singin: don't worry bout a thing,

cause every little thing gonna be all right.

Singin: don't worry (don't worry) bout a thing,

cause every little thing gonna be all right!

We left the trio in peace and continued on with our day though Ben repeatedly went back to the window to see if the birds were still out there. I began to wonder what kind of omen is it for three birds to experience a quick demise on your doorstep (I mean deck)? I have clearly been reading a little too much historical fiction set in medieval France and during Biblical times. All those crazy superstitions have worn off on me! I did what any normal person would do and set out to search the Internet for an answer. I was left unsatisfied with what I found - a little discussion about birds foreshadowing death, in this case their own. While I was searching, so was Brian but in a completely different area. I guess I didn't realize that "bird strikes" were such a common occurrence until Brian emailed me several websites including the Top Ten Things You Can Do to Prevent Window Strikes from the Bird Watchers Digest.

http://www.birdwatchersdigest.com/site/backyard_birds/top_ten/bill_top_10_strikes.aspx

The next day the boys and I sat down to read their magazine Wild Animal Baby. The cover this month featured a mama bluebird feeding her chick and inside there was a story about Bobby the Bluebird. At the end of the magazine there was a craft project to make your own bluebird. Ben was interested so we gathered the necessary supplies - construction paper and tissue paper in the same color, glue, string, scissors, and crayons. The only tissue paper I had that matched the construction paper ended up being polka-dotted so we were able to produce three brids with spotted wings - one red and two green. Three birds - ironic. Once we got them hanging up they were not only flying but flying towards the windows! They looked like a makeshift memorial to the victims of the previous morning.

Wait, it gets better. Monday ended up being a very wet and cold day. A mixture of snow and rain fell all day long and we made the fairly easy decision to stay home rather than attend TCF. But being at home all day means keeping occupied so I gathered the makings of another craft project for Ben and we got started. Without realizing the connection to the previous days' events I laid out a pine cone, string, vegetable shortening (instead of peanut butter) and bird seed. See where we're going with this? Ben was thrilled with the messiness of the project and was quite proud of his finished bird feeder. We hung it outside on our little tree by the deck and waited for the birds to arrive. What can I say? You have to have food after a memorial, right?