Graditude

I received this email from my daughter and I have never been so proud... I just must share it with the world:

I was leaving for work this morning and walked up to my car to find a baby bird laying in the driveway. My heart sank into my stomach and felt so sad for it... I knew I had to at least remove it from the hot pavement. It had definitely fell from a nest in the palm tree about 50 feet above. I placed my items in the car and kneeled down next to the still bird. When the little bird felt my shadow block out the hot sun, it began chirping and was trying hard to move around. I gave him a little nudge and it tried to sit up. I think we can save this little bird!

I ran into the house and grabbed a towel and a large bowl. As I went to scoop up the wobbly little thing, both of it's claws wrapped firmly around my index finger for stability. It clearly does not have a broken leg with such a firm grip. I carefully helped it fold up it's wings and gain some balance. The little bird was sitting on my finger like a baby cockatiel. The wings look like their in good shape and not a mark on it's whole body. What a lucky little bird!

I placed him on the towel and carefully put him inside the bowl. It chirped all the way to work and wobbled around inside the bowl. After opening up the office, I called The Living Desert to see where I should bring the little bird. I tried to pet it's head to calm it, but every time it saw my hand it opened it's mouth for food or wanted to grab my hand to sit on my finger. As soon as it had it's little claws around my finger, it quieted right down. I guess it was more comfortable perched than trying to walk around on a flat surface. It's balance was not great, but it sat and pruning it's feathers and shook off the dust and the morning's traumatic events.

I drove to The Living Desert and took the bird to the members area. I carefully filled out the necessary paperwork with the baby bird still sitting on my finger. A technician named Tom took the baby bird and said they would care for it until it could fly. Then it would be released back to the wild as close as possible to the location that I had found it. He said it would take about 2 weeks to grow more feathers and then another week or two to learn to fly. Then Tom said that he has always had a special fondness for mocking birds. I had no idea it was a mocking bird!! It has such a small stubby little tail for a mocking bird. Tom said that it still has to grow the tail feathers, but a mocking bird baby is unmistakable because of the large yellow clown like mouth and a couple white marks on it's wings. I made a generous donation to the Living Desert to help care for the little bird and said my goodbyes.

We live in such a busy world. Not many take the time to smell the flowers, watch a lady bug crawl on a leaf, or just stop for a short moment to notice the mocking bird's beautiful song. I can not even put into words how happy I am that I took a few extra minutes to care for an animal that I thought was dead. What would have happen to this little bird if I had just got into my car and left. I will be watching my neighborhood even more carefully... smelling my neighbor's roses... listening to the birds sing... and I just might hear an extra special mockingbird song saying hello, thank you for taking a moment... thank you for noticing me.