Here is a short true story by Deb Roberts
Just moved from North Syracuse, New York, for business into a furnished, one bedroom/one floor plan apartment with a livingroom and kitchenette, in Coraopolis, PA. That is northeast of Pittsburg, PA. near the Ohio river. The complexes had tall trees in the back and shorter trees in the front, that was half way between the parking lot and the fence. The birds loved to land those trees. Ralph and Debra was glad the birds were there because they loved hearing the birds making music.
Ralph recently became a Business Consultant and was transferred to cover Pittsburg for the company. Debra, his wife, helped him with the paperwork and getting directions ready to visit his next client. She always went on his appointments with him.
One day, Debra had the front door open and she was working at a folding table, using it for a desk. It was a warm and very sunny midmorning day in April. The air smelled of the flowering trees just outside. The birds were singing and the neighborhood was relatively quiet. Ralph was in the bedroom getting some things ready for when he had to leave a couple of hours later.
“Excuse me.” Debra heard and she looked up.
There stood a tall, thin, brown haired young man of about 20 years old in blue jeans, white tee shirt, no shoes or socks. The craziest thing she noticed was he had tube socks over his hands and arms. His hands were cupped together in front of him like someone trying to carry water in them.
“I was wondering if you could help me?” He opened up his hands a little and out popped a little head. A pretty, little baby bird was in his hands. The bird had a blackish gray head with a white throat and an orangy-yellow belly,and gray back. It still had some of it’s fluffy new born feathers.
“I think it’s a baby Robin,” he said.
Mesmerized, staring at the bird, she continued to listen to him.
“I live over there,” he moved his hands to indicate the next building over that was about 100 feet away. The young man continued, “in the back part of the building. Watching out my window I saw this little baby bird knocked out of his nest in that tall tree over there by a cat. I ran out and chased the cat away, but now I have to go to my college class soon and I was looking for someone to help with the tiny bird. You’re the only people I could find home.”
“I don’t know what I can do, but I will try.” Believing that if a human touches the baby (she did not know if that was true or not), the parent will not come near it again. Entering the kitchenette, Debra quickly picked up a medium sized pot and draped a kitchen towel in and took it to the front door.
The young man carefully placed the very young bird into the pot and stood there and petted it like you would a dog or cat and smiled, “Thanks for the help.” Then turned and walked away back towards his apartment.
Debra placed the potted bird on her table/desk as Ralph walked from the bedroom, into the livingroom.
“Who was here?” he asked. “Where did that come from?”
After explaining the prior events, she smiled and said, “We have a new pet.”
They sat down on the couch and watched the little bird. Ralph and Debra immediately loved the young bird. Really enjoying sitting there and listening to it tweet.
After a while, Debra went back to work at her desk, finishing the directions she was working on. Then Ralph asked, “How are you going to feed it?”
Turning her head, open mouthed and trying to think, Debra stared out of their livingroom window at the 6 foot wooden privacy fence that edged two sides of the 5’ by 5’ concrete slab porch outside their apartment. A sidewalk was on the third side for exiting the apartment, leading to the parking lot. The first thought that came to her mind was smashing a worm and feeding it to the baby……Uck!!!
Eventually Debra noticed an adult Robin was chirping and hopping across the fence.“Chirp, chirp,” the adult bird called.
“Tweet..tweet,” baby bird answered.
Then the adult bird would hop across the fence, “Chirp…,” turned it’s head as if to be listening, “Chirp….chirp.”
Then the baby called back, “Tweet …tweet,” hopping in the pot, mouth open, waitting for the food.
Miracle!! Even though the baby was not in the tree, nor on the ground near the tree, but in a building 250 feet away from the tree, Mama found her baby! So, very carefully, Debra lifted the pot and carried it outside.
Once outside, she tried to find the best place to put the new nest. Figuring that the pot would not set well in the tree near their porch without falling. The air conditioner, that was outside the fence, in front of the bedroom window, would be too low, making the baby vulnerable to animals and children. But placing the pot on the corner of their privacy fence, they could look out the front window and see the baby and the adult interact.
Settling down and watching, first they noticed baby tweeted, the mama flew from the tree that was right next to the fence and landed on top of the fence. Mama chirpped, baby tweeted, mama hopped across the fence towards the pot nest. Mama chirpped and kept turning it’s head to locate the baby. Baby tweeted and mama would move closer until she hopped on the rim of the pot.
Then suddenly she flew away! Disappointed, but Debra left the baby outside. Her thoughts travelled back to the smashing worms idea. The baby was quiet.
Suddenly, the baby went, “Tweet!”
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Mama flew back, “Chirp!” Mama hopped on the fence and continued until she was back up on the rim of the pot and began to feed the baby. Over and over, the birds went through this process as Ralph and Debra watched for a couple hours. Too soon, enjoying the show so much, it was time for Ralph and Debra to see a client. Thinking that it was as good as any place, they left the baby up on the fence.
While they were visiting the client, Ralph and Debra told them their wonderful bird story. After being gone for a couple of hours, they were excited to get back to watch the birds.
Driving back, the traffic was very heavy, at times it came to a stand still. They started, again discussing the very young bird. Both became concerned and extremely anxious to get back to find out the welfare of the baby Robin.
“It’s gone!” Debra said, shocked and surprised. The pot was not on the top of the fence.
After quickly parking the car, got out, they started searching around the fence. On the inside of the wood fence, she saw it. The pot was lying on the ground sideways. Towel partially pulled out of the pot. Feeling an urgent need to find the baby, she franically looked for it.
“The cat has it!” Ralph shouted and pointed.
Hunched down in the direction of the tree that the baby bird came from, was a big, gray, black with some white, cat. In his mouth, was the baby.
Debra ran and yelled at the cat until he dropped the baby and ran about 10 feet away. The cat stopped, crouched down, looked back at her. Seeing she was still coming, the cat looked longingly at the baby, then turned and hurried away.
Kneeling next to the baby, Ralph had brought with him the towel and he handed it to Debra.
Feeling the pain that the Mama bird would be feeling for her lost child, Debra picked up the baby with the towel.
As she looked down at the wee little baby, Debra blamed herself for not putting the potted baby in the apartment for safety, thinking the Mama bird would want to keep feeding it while they were gone. Very sad because she would not hear the little one tweet again because she knew. Regretfully she knew. She saw no blood, but the baby would move no more.
