bird rescue

We have had a barn swallow nest under our deck for a while now.  I have to admit that it was a bit annoying to me in the beginning cause those birds just swoop in and out and leave little bird droppings everywhere.  I hadn't heard a peep so was convinced that there weren't any baby birds in there and that they could find a real barn to nest in (I sound like such an animal lover, huh?).  Well, Brian went out to mow the yard yesterday and found that the nest had fallen to the patio.  And I was wrong about the baby birds - there were 3 actually, but only one survived the fall.  The one sweet little bird that survived just sat on the patio looking lost.  It seemed so frightened and wouldn't move very much, but we couldn't figure out if it was because it was hurt or just scared. 

So we called the Wild Bird Rehab place (didn't know such a thing existed) and they told us to put some kind of container up to replace the nest, fill it with something soft like paper towels, and put the baby bird back in since the adult birds were still swooping in and out.

So the four of us did exactly that (and that little bird really could move, especially when there is a tall red-headed man trying to scoop it up with big yellow gloves).  Brian finally got it back in the "nest" and we went back in to see if the mom and dad would come back.  Soon we saw white paper towel strips floating in the air, so they must have liked our little Cool Whip nest.

This is what I saw this morning, and we couldn't have been happier.

Yay for the baby bird!  It looks completely normal.  Its parents are still very protective and don't like anyone getting anywhere close (and I don't like their swooping, so we have a pretty good relationship).  Elliott wanted to keep it as a pet of course, but our no pet policy was repeated to him again and I think he understood since he rolled his eyes.  Besides, I told him, it's illegal to keep barn swallows as pets.