Our Land As A Nest

    I want to share how two families of birds used our house and our shed to build their nests. 

    It all started one morning, when it was time to go to Cattus Island. (I wrote more about this in my previous article: A Little Lost Soul). When I headed out the front door, I saw two little eggs sitting in a nest built right on our porch. I remembered that, for the past three years, we have had a bird build its nest right on a wrath that we hang on our porch for Christmas. We leave it up for the rest of the year in the hope that a nest will be built on it. My guess is that the birds like it there, since there is always warm air coming from the kitchen, which is right on the other side of the wall. Also, our porch has only one side open. Therefore, the birds are safe from any predators that might come. 

    I followed the bird parents for a long time. First, they came to look around to see if there was any good place to make their nest. They found our wrath, and decided that it was a safe place to stay. One day, they brought twigs. Then more twigs, until they sat comfortably in their nest waiting for the eggs to hatch. It was a pretty small nest. I wondered how two birds could fit in it. As time passed, they laid three, then four, and the ultimate record, five eggs. Now, keep in mind that these birds are not as small as a hummingbird. These are house finches. If two eggs was a lot, imagine five, all cramped into a teeny-tiny nest. Incredible. 

 After there were no more eggs to add to the pile, I went to check in our shed to see if any bird made their nest there too. Last year, we had a wren make its nest. It had around five chicks. When I searched the shed, I found a much larger nest with three eggs inside. I was really happy about it. Well, I have, for days, searched the nest, there was no mommy bird to sit on the eggs. One day, when my dad went to get a shovel from behind the shed, he saw that there were a lot of feathers scattered on the ground. I knew that something had to have eaten the poor bird. Alas, no eggs have hatched, but they will always be remembered on this blog.

    As time went on, the five tiny eggs on our porch had grown into five healthy birds. I went to check on them every day. However, one time when I opened the door to my house, the birds got really scared. Three of the strongest flew away, scaring the other two smaller ones. These two fell to the ground, but they were not able to fly, leaving me no choice but to grab them and take them in. At first, I had no clue what to do with them. What was I going to feed them? Will they live? I took them inside and gently brushed them with my finger so they would stop chirping and calm down.

    As I sat there with the two chicks in my hand, I was already starting to imagine the things I would do with them. First of all, I had to teach them how to fly. I searched my house and found a long candle they could perch on. I lifted the birds one by one and put them on the candle. I moved the candle up and down. When the candle went down, the birds flapped their wings as hard as they could, but did not manage to lift themselves up. After a good ten minutes of training, it was time to eat. I grabbed a bowl full of water, and put some seeds from our bird feeder in it. This way, the seeds were nice and soft, and I could easily squeeze them in the bird's mouth. Next, I fed them water with my syringe. They were much more energetic with a full belly. This went on for about three days, until it was time to release them. 

I could not believe how fast the chicks had grown. In less than five days, they had lots of feathers and started looking like adults. Before I let them go, I got on the internet and, for fun, started researching baby house finches. I came upon an incredible article that really shocked me. It said that less than three chicks survive out of ten. No wonder there were so few birds in the world. From the three birds that flew out of the nest, only one or two survived, and the two that I raised would have surely died. 

    Finally, it was time to let the birds go. I let the bigger one first. I left it on a tree, and I saw the parents come and fly with it. I let the smaller one go next. The same thing happened. It is important to leave baby birds with their parents since they teach them how to fly, eat, and get water. I felt like a bird parent to, for those were the things I taught the chicks to do.

    Believe it or not, after a few days from their departure, the whole family came and ate seeds from our feeder. I will forever be happy that I could help to save two chicks that otherwise, without my help, would have probably not made it.