Happenings

It was a warm July afternoon when my family and I pulled into our driveway after a long vacation to California and Montana to a pleasant surprise. After unloading our van, I walked across the front yard to check the mail. Stepping over the brick wall and heading towards the mail box I just happened to glance up towards the corner of the porch ceiling and noticed what appeared to be a cake of mud smacked onto the eaves. “What in the world is that?” I asked myself. I gingerly stepped up onto a bench to take a better look.

“Oh my,” I whispered, “Carrie, Christopher come here…quietly!” I was so excited to show them the Barn Swallow nest that I had discovered. We had seen these beautiful black birds flying throughout the neighborhood, but had never seen a nest like this so close.

“I’m too tired, I want to go in and go to bed!” Carrie whined.

“Do I have to?????” grumbled Christopher.

“Just trust me,” I replied, “I think you’re going to want to see our visitors.”

The kids turned and looked at each other with puzzled expressions and said in unison “Visitors?” before dragging their tired bodies across the front yard. As soon as they stepped under the porch they followed my gaze into the corner of the eaves…where what to our wondering eyes did appear but a tiny mama barn swallow sitting on a nest of caked mud.

“Oh look at her!” Carrie squealed softly, “Do you think she has any eggs in there?”

“I bet she does, or else she wouldn’t be sitting there like that,” Christopher replied.

“Well,” I said softly, “we’ll just have to wait and see.”

Each day from that moment, we avoided using the front door in order to avoid disturbing our little friends. We even went so far as to hang a screen beneath the nest just in case…just in case there were baby birds in there and they accidentally fell out. Each day, from that moment on we would carefully crack open the front door and peer silently at the nest to see if we had any new arrivals. Each day from that moment on, it was the same-Mama Bird sitting on the nest, and Papa Bird sitting on the edge of the screen beside her. That is until…

One day we peered out the front door to find that Mama and Papa were gone…but peeking over the edge of the nest were 2 tiny bald heads with big fat yellow beaks. “We have babies!” we happily told our family and friends. We watched those babies grow each day, we watched the Mama and Papa come back to feed them, and when the 2 baby birds grew bigger, we watched Mama Bird sleep beside Papa on the screen so that the babies could have the nest, and eventually we listened to the babies cry when they became hungry. We watched and watched…until one day they were gone…all of them. The babies flew the coop and an empty nest remained. On occasion we would see the grown up babies (and let me tell you if you thought human children grow up fast you ought to watch a baby bird grow…it happens at lightening speed!) come back and sit on the ledge near the nest, but we thought that our experience with Barn Swallows and their babies was over.

That is until one day about 2 weeks ago…Carrie had stepped out to get the mail and Mama Bird was back on the nest. “I think they laid more eggs.” she reported when she stepped inside.

Once again I uttered the words, “Well, we’ll just have to wait and see.”

We didn’t have to wait long, just a few days later Mr. Hulburt reported that he had found a broken egg shell laying on the concrete beneath the nest. The kids and I darted quickly outside (although quietly) and sure enough, as we peeked into the nest we saw movement and suddenly three tiny bald heads with large yellow beaks poked over the edge of the nest! This time there were 3!

photo credit: the superash

The cycle continues…we watch Mama come back to feed the babies, we watch Mama & Papa sleep beside the nest, we listen to the babies chirp when they are hungry, and soon, very soon I’m sure we will see them take their first flight. And then again, we will be faced with an empty nest…it’s sad to think about it-because we have truly enjoyed watching our baby birds grow, we can only hope that there will be more eggs and baby birds to come.

Now, students, please post a quality comment on this week’s entry. Remember to tell the author what you liked about the piece (maybe it was a powerful line, a personal connection, flashy vocab, the picture the story painted for you, etc.). After you tell the author something good about the piece, let them know what area you think they could improve and HOW they can do that (remember EVERY author has room for improvement). Finally, let the author know what you would like from them next…do you have any questions about this piece? Would you like to hear more stories like this one? What can this writer do for you as their reader?