Meet Peep - July 2, 2008 -
Not only does Peep have a Mohawk, which makes him the stylin’ nestling on the block, but he also loves sky diving from 15 feet in the air.
Peep has no fear. You can have your well-dressed-for-work husband climb the huge ladder at 6:30 a.m. and place Peep the Cardinal back into his booby trapped nest in the twig filled oak tree…..but before your husband can glare at you as he steps off the last rung, Peep will come hurtling through the air and make a soft landing on the thick grass. And he will then peep.
Peep will spend the entire day doing this, until you come to your senses as you stand on the top rung, on the “DANGER: DO NOT STAND ON TOP OF LADDER. YOU MAY LOSE YOUR BALANCE AND FALL” sign and decide that if Peep needs sea level, Peep will get it.
Peep takes up residence in a decorative, old bird nest that your father found over 13 years ago. At first, you try placing the nest in the lowest branches of the tree (Duh). He continues to leap.
Your children watch him peep on the ground and they cry and rip their clothing in grief.
You KNOW that the parent cardinals are there, watching over their reckless youth. You have even seen them feed it a time or two, shake their heads and cluck “Tsk, tsk tsk…can you believe YOUR son”, but as the afternoon wears on, Peep gets a bit dehydrated and lethargic.
You load into the car and head to the local pet shop to buy Exact Hand feeding Formula for seed eating birds because Peep is a Cardinal, and they are way above eating bugs. Only the best mush will do.
As dusk settles in, you end up bringing the baby in and with the little nest, you place it in an old canary cage that belonged to your grandmother. Peep starts, well, peeping, so you mix the mush and give it to him via a syringe. His crop gets full, and he stops peeping and closes his eyes. You turn, walk to the sink, rinse the syringe and mixing bowl and as you set it down the peeping begins and the whole process starts over again.
Your husband makes it clear that if that keeps up all night, out goes Peep.
Peep only becomes quiet as night falls. The cage is covered, the kids are bathed and you ready yourself for bed. You stop at the cage to make sure the very quiet baby bird is still alive and you notice….something funny about his beak. It appears, in the dim light, that he has grown a second beak. The cage is taken to a bright light and the horror that Peep is silently tolerating becomes very apparent.
(changing to first person)
Peep had a worm crawling out of his left nostril. Yes, a worm. I had to stare at it for a minute before it moved, but move it did. Which left me in a very unusual position. I could either leave the large worm hanging out of the nostril (no, I did not get my camera) or I could get some tweezers and pull it out.
Yeah. I pulled the worm out of the baby birds schnoz with the tweezers. What about it? The little bird was so relieved. It was beyond gross, and I keep reaching up to rub my left nostril in sympathy for Peep.
I threw the worm out, along with the tweezers and when I came back in the house, Bill said “So, do you still want to keep the bird in the house. Yeeeeeah! Wouldn’t that be special to have a worm like that”.
Yes, Peep was promptly taken outdoors, and he and his little nest were comfortably deposited in the branches of a tree for the night.
Which brings us to today. The bird is still alive. We fed it outside all day, along with the parents (it does take a village, you know) and his feathers appear to be turning Cardinal red this evening.
No more nostril worm sightings, but there is still time before he is officially a fledgling and will hop/fly away.
In the meantime, it is that time of year. The babies are getting too big for their britches and the nestlings are acting like fledglings. The difference between the two is that a fledgling is supposed to do this, and a nestling is supposed to, as the name implies, stay in the nest.
If you see a bird with full feathers, hopping around on the ground and flying very short distances, this is okay. They are supposed to do that at this fledgling stage. They are not supposed to sleep in late, and borrow the car and money until they are 30.
Nestlings on the other hand can’t fly short distances. They are much more vulnerable to predators at this stage, so try and place them back into their nest.
If they are hell bent on hitting the pavement, and they are in a safe location free from dogs or cats, the best thing to do is leave them to their parents. Try placing them in a makeshift nest in the lower branches of the tree. The parents will continue to care for it. It is a HUGE myth that touching a baby bird will make its parents reject it.
Although I have to wonder if they would be inclined to if they saw a worm crawl out of their preshus baaaybeees nose.
**edit to add that this was written yesterday, and Peep spent another restful night in his makeshift nest in the tree. No guarantee that this little guy will make it, but so far so good.
***edit to add that we had a huge downpour of rain and as it started, went out to get Peep but could not find him. We spent forever combing the yard and he was nowhere to be found. We looked everywhere and finally gave up and went in, thinking his parents shooed him to safety. When the rain let up, we went outside to look some more, and finally found him. He had climbed into a low lying plant in our flower bed…..the same flower bed that floods. The poor, sweet little thing drown. We are so upset and sad. Mia especially. As I type this she is buried in the covers next to me sobbing. (HUGE SIGH)
