Jecca Mehlota (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
jecca_mehlota) wrote2008-06-09 01:44 pm
jecca_mehlota) wrote2008-06-09 01:44 pm
Entry tags:
Today...
I held a baby starling in my hand and put it back up in a tree.
There's a big, old box elder behind our barn that's been falling down bit by bit over the years. Apparently there's a family of starlings nested in it somewhere. This morning, my mother found a baby sitting in the grass a little ways off from it. Later, she found another one. So she called my brother and I to see if we could spot the nest and went inside to call the Audubon Society to see what we could do if we couldn't find the nest. (We couldn't.)
Meanwhile, the cat, who had also spotted the babies, was howling and scratching at the door, so we locked her in the basement... She didn't like that.
So we pulled out a box (it held clementines at one point) and my brother took it away to hack one side off so the birds could still get in and out of it, then we fetched one of the ladders from the barn and set it against the tree.
My brother went up to nail it in place, but there was a massive fungus, so first he had to hack it off. Hammers are ineffective mushroom-killers, so Mom went to get one of her pruning tools, and then it was chopped off. The box was nailed into place, and all we had left to do was carry the birds up the ladder and put them in the box.
My mother, who seemed the best candidate, as she knows how to pick up birds and all, doesn't do ladders, so my brother and I had to each grab one and scurry up the ladder and drop it in the box before they got too loud and, I dunno, called their parents to come kill us or something.
I didn't want to pick up a bird without gloves, so we ran around trying to find some suitable gloves for a bit. Fortunately, we found some. (Extremely fortunate, actually, because as soon as I picked up the first one, it pooped all over. o_@;)
I put the first one in, then as the second one was going up the ladder, that one hopped out of the box and hid under the remains of the mushroom. Oops. And then one of them (we lost track of which was which) hopped back down out of the tree. So Mom went and retrieved some rhubarb leaves to place over the box so they'd have something to hide under. My brother - who was still up the ladder - caught the leaves she threw at him and covered the box, and then the little birds were happy to sit in it.
They are currently still there.
Here's hoping they stay there!
PHOTOS:
There are two birds in this picture. Can you see them?
The starlings:
Another look:
The box, and part of my mother:
Where the box was going to go:
The box in the tree:
FUNGUS, or most of it, and also a sandal:
Hiding outside the box:
Rhubarb covering:
The tree (that's not the ladder we used to nail the box. That's the ladder we used to try and spy the nest):
Still the tree:
Jecca, making a strange face as she picks up the bird.
Now I must flee to work.
Edit:
There was a small error that I didn't notice, but now all the images are showing up. ...yay!
There's a big, old box elder behind our barn that's been falling down bit by bit over the years. Apparently there's a family of starlings nested in it somewhere. This morning, my mother found a baby sitting in the grass a little ways off from it. Later, she found another one. So she called my brother and I to see if we could spot the nest and went inside to call the Audubon Society to see what we could do if we couldn't find the nest. (We couldn't.)
Meanwhile, the cat, who had also spotted the babies, was howling and scratching at the door, so we locked her in the basement... She didn't like that.
So we pulled out a box (it held clementines at one point) and my brother took it away to hack one side off so the birds could still get in and out of it, then we fetched one of the ladders from the barn and set it against the tree.
My brother went up to nail it in place, but there was a massive fungus, so first he had to hack it off. Hammers are ineffective mushroom-killers, so Mom went to get one of her pruning tools, and then it was chopped off. The box was nailed into place, and all we had left to do was carry the birds up the ladder and put them in the box.
My mother, who seemed the best candidate, as she knows how to pick up birds and all, doesn't do ladders, so my brother and I had to each grab one and scurry up the ladder and drop it in the box before they got too loud and, I dunno, called their parents to come kill us or something.
I didn't want to pick up a bird without gloves, so we ran around trying to find some suitable gloves for a bit. Fortunately, we found some. (Extremely fortunate, actually, because as soon as I picked up the first one, it pooped all over. o_@;)
I put the first one in, then as the second one was going up the ladder, that one hopped out of the box and hid under the remains of the mushroom. Oops. And then one of them (we lost track of which was which) hopped back down out of the tree. So Mom went and retrieved some rhubarb leaves to place over the box so they'd have something to hide under. My brother - who was still up the ladder - caught the leaves she threw at him and covered the box, and then the little birds were happy to sit in it.
They are currently still there.
Here's hoping they stay there!
PHOTOS:
There are two birds in this picture. Can you see them?
The starlings:
Another look:
The box, and part of my mother:
Where the box was going to go:
The box in the tree:
FUNGUS, or most of it, and also a sandal:
Hiding outside the box:
Rhubarb covering:
The tree (that's not the ladder we used to nail the box. That's the ladder we used to try and spy the nest):
Still the tree:
Jecca, making a strange face as she picks up the bird.
Now I must flee to work.
Edit:
There was a small error that I didn't notice, but now all the images are showing up. ...yay!
no subject
no subject