Right Place, Right Time

Sometimes, you are just at the right place at the right time. Tonight, I was getting ready to watch Idol (which is actually on right now, but I'm DVR'ing) and I had the patio door open. You may remember my post last year about the robins that build nests under our deck. Well, we didn't tear down last year's nest because I figured that they wouldn't reuse a nest and we could sit on our deck in peace and quiet. Wrong. The robins used the same nest again! They were making all sorts of racket tonight and I decided to go out and take a peek. And, that nest is now literally spilling over with baby birds. The reason I know this is because when I peeked through the cracks of the deck to see what was going on in the nest, I noticed that one of the little babies had fallen out and was laying on the patio below.

So, I ran down the stairs and scooped the baby up, because I had read that it is actually a myth that the parents will desert a baby after it has been handled. It was so helpless, but didn't appear to be hurt from the fall. Here is the poor little thing.

I cupped it in my hands and then tore off a hosta leaf to lay it on. I thought that I had a ladder that was tall enough to reach the nest. So, I ran inside to google "Should you put a baby bird back in the nest?" It actually depends on the situation, but the answer in this case was "yes".

So, back out I went hauling my tall ladder down the hardscaped staircase and then, I met the mad momma. You can even see her beak open in this picture.

She was not happy - and I can't blame her. And, she only got more angry as I climbed my ladder to put her baby back where it belonged.

Here is my ladder ready for action.

Ah - back to safety. Hopefully baby stays put - but there were at least 3 others in there. I can see why he got pushed out in the first place. I know there are those of you who are saying, "Let nature take its course." But, I think there is a reason I checked on that nest tonight and I'm calling it "Right place, right time."

Goodnight sweet little tweety. Hope you are well in the morning.

Tomorrow's Thursday! Yippie the weekend's almost here!