Our Exciting Day with the Baby Birds

I have been meaning to write about this and post pictures for a while now. Last week, while M was at his grandparents, Brendt (hubby) told me that the baby birds in the nest on our swingset are getting bigger and that we might want to take some pictures, as they would likely be gone by the time M comes home. So, I went outside with my camera and climbed up in the fort to take a picture. I did get one picture, but quickly climbed down as mama bird apparently didn't like me being so close to her babies and she kept trying to attack me (well probably not, but it sure felt like it!). Here is the picture that I took (see, not so great):

I wanted a better picture, so I asked Brendt if he would mind to take a few pictures for me. He agreed and went out with the camera. Instead of climbing into the fort, he climbed up on the side of the fort and took some pictures. And then IT happened...as he jumped off of the side the fort, he shook the swingset and all three baby birds fell out of their nest. Immediately, I freaked out. First, as a mother myself, I felt so sad for the mama bird, even though moments before she had been trying to attack me. Then, I thought of M and how he was going to be maaa-aaad when he found out what had happened.

We weren't sure exactly what to do, so I googled "what to do when baby birds fall out of their nest" (google is my friend!) and was linked to the Ohio Wildlife Center. On that website, I found a phone number that you can call if you find an injured animal. I talked with a very nice lady and asked her what to do if baby birds fall from their nest (I didn't mention that the fall was our fault!). She said that they need to be put back in their nest, but to be warned, if the mama bird is around, she may try to poke your eyes out!!! She mentioned that you might want to put a metal bowl on your head to protect yourself and wear sunglasses as well. So of course, I decided that this was a job for Brendt.

Here he is wearing a hat (I couldn't get him to wear a metal bowl), sunglasses and gloves - ready for action.

Here is a picture of him bending down to pick up one of the baby birds...

And another picture of the attacking birds (this one is my favorite!). And here he is chasing one of the babies as it walks out into the street.

Finally, after all of that work, you will never guess what happened...the baby birds jumped out of their nest! So I called the Ohio Wildlife Center again and talked to the same nice lady (who asked me if my husband was wearing his metal bowl) and she told me that the birds are probably old enough to fledge (the wings are developed to fly, but the bird just hasn't flown yet) so she said that if the mother was still around (umm...yes, she has been attacking us all day!) that we could just put the baby under a bush to protect it from predators and the mother would feed it on the ground.

Here is the final picture of the day - one of the babies in her new home. A few days later, all of the babies were gone. We are assuming that they just flew away!!!