Here’s one of our backyard mothers – mooma robin on her nest incubating four eggs. She flees whenever I open the back door (it makes a big racket) but once I’ve been seated out there for a bit she returns to her nest. Five feet or so away and inside a birdhouse is mooma chickadee and we aren’t sure if her eggs have hatched yet or not. Then there’s Henrietta, who can frequently be seen lounging on the grass munching away. I occasionally also see a baby rabbit but I can’t tell how many she has because I have only seen one at any given time. Squirrels and chipmunks run around everywhere all the time but I suspect that’s because the GG has again hung a bird squirrel/chipmunk feeder🐽

Yesterday I played a small role (from afar) in a bird rescue. Lizard Breath and friends found a live, shivering baby bird in their furnace in Detroit. I am by no means an expert on wildlife rescue/rehab but a friend of mine works with squirrels and frequently shares facebook posts from legitimate sources. I have learned from her posts that if you find a fledgling, leave it alone and mooma will find it. If it hasn’t fledged and you don’t know where the nest is (not sure about that part), contact a rescue center. Most of these places accept birds/animals at a designated location, then place them with trained volunteers. This baby didn’t seem to have fledged, in any case it was pretty cold and therefore vulnerable and not in a place the mooma could find it.

My very small role in yesterday’s rescue was in knowing how this works and locating a rescue operation in an inner Detroit suburb. This one even had a big “I’ve found a bird” button to click. And contact-free delivery in these difficult times. They were able to take the baby there and hopefully all will be well.

Years ago, we had a baby bird foisted upon us via lack of knowledge on the part of a beach urchin’s friend’s parent. I’m sure we had the internet in those days but you couldn’t just load google maps up on an iPhone and type in “bird rescue”. I think the GG called the Humane Society or somebody and they told us what to feed the bird and then we were kinda on our own.

At the time we also had a guinea pig, rat, five anole lizards, two visiting hamsters and a visiting turtle (or am I dreaming the turtle). Anyway a living room full of cages during a hot un-air-conditioned summer.

We took a trip to Hoton Lake and the yooperland over a long 4th of July weekend. We left all of those aminals at home under the careful care of Shuggy. EXCEPT THE BABY BIRD! It fledged in its cage in the POC sometime during the trip. The GG bonded with it and I think he wanted to keep it for a pet even though it was what he calls a “junk bird” (house sparrow). We named it Willow. Alas, one morning he opened its cage in the Landfill back yard to provide food and LEFT THE CAGE OPEN. Yes, Willow flew away. I hope s/he lived a long happy life.

This baggy old mooma? First of all, EVERY DAY IS MOTHER’S DAY. But we rolled down to Lake Erie with the Lyme Lounge and parked in the day use lot at Ted Sperling State Park. We skedaddled before a storm rolled through and I had the foresight to bring the equipment to bottleP if I needed to but I didn’t. Oh yeah, bacon for breakfast, which was all good but if I had remembered that Monahan’s was serving up bagels and lox for curbside pickup, I think I’d’ve ordered some of that instead.

P.S. I shamelessly stole both of these pics. Mooma robin is by the GG and the baby bird is by Lizard Breath.

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