Thursday, June 10, 2010

Floods and the Like

Tuesday night we had a torrential rain storm, lasting all night and into Wednesday morning. It caught everyone by surprise, I think. Our rivers got up to almost 30 feet (flood stage is considered 13 feet) and it was just depressing, knowing people's homes were flooded.

But before that, I had Caleb come over for an afternoon and spend time with me while Mommy and Daddy went out on a date! Caleb sure does like Bunny. We had a good time.

caleb

Here is a photo I took from Landa Street, next to the Knights of Columbus, which sits by the river coming out of Landa Park. Sts. Peter and Paul is in the background.

flood

Now on to the real drama of that day: it was about 8:00pm, and Lanier was not home yet. I decided to walk to mailbox, which is around the circle of our neighborhood. As I came back, I spied a small bird in the road, who seemed unable to fly. It was a fledgling! I shooed it to the curb as a truck was approaching, and not seeing any parents around, I scooped him up and carried him home in my shirt.

We made a shoebox next for him with grass and tried to feed him dogfood (that's what the website said to do). He seemed to get weaker and weaker. I was beside myself, thinking I'd killed this tiny baby. But really he just wanted to go to sleep! He tucked his little head in his little wing and dozed off.

This morning, he was chirping and fluttering his wings--he's really close to being able to fly. I decided it'd be best to return him outside and see if Mom and Dad would hear his call.

It took about 60 seconds and they arrived. Amazing! This is Dad. I think, after going through many bird watching sites, they are House Finches. The males have red feathers on their heads.

bird1

I attempted to get a photo of Baby all by himself, but my lens fogged terribly in the humidity. By the time I swapped it out for a better one, Jr. had been able to sort of fly into the next yard with Dad, and all his brothers and sisters arrived, too. Junior is on the far right. You can see Mom flying in.

bird2

Once they saw he was ok, all the sibs took off. Dad remained to give Junior a bite to eat. It was so cool to watch. A heartwarming tale.

bird3

And one last shot of Dad still feeding as Mom takes off to hunt for more.
A happily ever after ending! I am so glad!!

bird4

3 comments:

krissy said...

wow. that is amazing!

Jonathan said...

awesome!

Craig Hawkins said...

I would love to use that pic of the bird in flight as a reference for a future drawing!

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