A Bird Adopted Me!
Several weeks ago while making cuttings this young Robin flies in the building and lands on my head. Just sits there. I put my hand on my head to get her off and she hops on the back on my hand and just rides it down to the table and looks at me as if to say; “Are you going to feed me?”
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She hung around for about a week. I’d be watering with a hose and she land on my hand, just hanging on as I waved the hose back and forth. Didn’t really have time to get a photo or a video, but wish I had.
I left my friend Blair at the nursery wiring up the timers for the pump while I went to the hardware store. When I came back he had closed the overhead door but his car was still there so I knew he hadn’t left. It was odd that the door was down. He told me the Robin was driving him crazy walking around on top of his head and he couldn’t work!
Finally the neighbor comes over with her on his hand and explains that his kids pulled her out of the pond barely alive and kept her in the house for a couple of weeks. When they finally let her loose she didn’t want to leave.
One day I got in the truck to leave and she flew in the window and sat on the steering wheel. You should have seen the look on my dog’s face. She’s never gotten that close to a bird and she was perplexed to say the least.
I used to see the neighbor out in the yard with a pitch fork digging for worms and pointing them out to her. I hope she learned to take care of herself and to be more afraid.
So . . . . what’s your favorite gardening story?
When I was a boy my mother was weeding the backyard. I was playing near by off and on with my extremely energetic, not so well behaved Beagle, “Reno”. Soon my my mother had found a area of the flower beds with quite a few slugs loitering in it. With a delicate scoop of the shovel she began flinging the unwanted guests into another area of the yard. As Reno continued bothering my mother, barking at her, jumping wildly in the air, kicking up dirt, etc. My mother suddenly heard one of Reno’s insistant barks cut off sharply with a swallowing and then loud, and slow “GULP”! Just as this happened she looked over to see a very shocked and confused dog. Apparently, with a “buzzer beating”, one in a million shot she blindly flung a large slug, mid-bark, into Reno’s mouth where it was decidely swallowed as most likely the only option to keep from choking!
….needless to say he didn’t bother my mother while she worked in the garden from that point on.
-Jamie
Jamie, that’s funny!
Baby birds were in my attic, I could hear them chirping. One day some of them fell down into the wall in my bathroom. I didn’t want them to die so I went next door and borrowed a saw, cut the wall open from inside the cabinet, and took them out. They were covered with dust, etc. I took them outside and gave them water and fed them worms. I took them to a little bridge at the back of the property and the mother bird started dive-bombing me. I left them there and watched as she finally got them to fly away. I bet the new owners wonder why there is a hole inside the cabinet…
Mike, When I lived in TN, I had a large sunporch with a southern exposure. I had planted several fruit trees and some butterfly bushes just outside the windows of the sunporch. It would get too hot some days, and I would lower the top windows to ventilate it. I came home from work one day and went to water my plants out there and the whole sunporch was filled with hundreds of butterflies. It was awesome. Made my day…
This is such a cute story Mike!
I guess the only similar story I have was when a wild peacock was staring in at me through the basement window! I didn’t realize what it was at first and then just about fell out when I realized it was a genuine peacock and he was looking in at ME!
He hung around for about 3 years and many times he would stroll through my gardens with me as I’d be weeding or pruning or what have you. He loved picking at the bugs and things I would stir up as I’d work there.
We found him finally a few miles down the road at another neighbors house. She said he just showed up one day about the time he left our neighborhood. 🙂
I linked to a story I wrote about him that has become quite popular if you would like to read the whole story.
Mike,
My late mother loved feeding and watching birds. Dad put several feeders on poles out in their back yard in Lorain, Ohio so mom could watch them from the kitchen. For dozens of years they fed “their” birds even in the deepest of Ohio winters. Hummers flocked to the feeders dad had hung out front by the big picture window so visitors could sit in the living room watching the tiny bird feeding.
When my mother passed away I was in her house in Lorain getting ready for her funeral. I was sitting in her kitchen thinking about what I was going to say during her funeral Mass.
Suddenly I heard a sound from the garage and could not tell what it was. It turned out that the garage door was closed and a bird was inside sitting on her car. When I went out to the garage it just sat on the car looking at me and singing sweetly. I opened the garage door, it sang once more and flew away. It was then that I knew what I was going to say at her service, “Son, I love you, I am safe and happy and free as a bird.”
Terry Thomas
Dunwoody Organic Gardens
Atlanta, Georgia USA
I love that story. My kids raised to sparrows that fell out of a nest made in a big “G” on the side of a grocery store. When we let Biff and Binky free, Biff took to freedom like a duck to water but Binky would still fly up to us, lift his head with his mouth wide open, waiting for food. He learned to feed himself but up until we moved from that farm, he would fly down and sit on the fence while we fed horses or come sit on the top of a rabbit cage while the kids were feeding. He had a chip out of his beak, so we always knew it was him!
Oh wow your bird story! My bird stories well the last one was about the swallows that came and built their nest on the top back of my wood burner stove which was an insert wood burner in my fireplace with a 2 story chimney.
One Spring afternoon I was indoors near my fireplace when I heard what sounded like scurrying noises inside my fireplace, behind
the metal panel that seals the wood stove around the fireplace opening. I thought maybe a mouse has lost it’s footing and fallen down the chimney and was trying to get out. I went outside where my “ash door” opens to clean out ashes and opened it, thinking maybe the mouse can find it’s way out the bottom. A couple days later I heard the soft scurrying noises again and thought I hope the mouse gets out and doesn’t die in there.
Then after some time we started to hear the voices of tiny baby birds as the parents went out hunting and brought back their food the babies were all chirping their thanks and enjoyments intermittantly all day and even way after dark. The swallows could hear everything going on in my house with just a thin metal wall between us and their nest. I am a musician and play lots of music and play exuberiantly with my little dog fetch and tug of love games… sooo we were often right there near the fireplace and could hear everything the swallows said. It was remarkable to live with these birds who we could hear them when they were getting the babies ready for their flight trainings which the parents of course had to fly down my 2 story chimney and up and so for I don’t know how many days we heard the feeding and the flight training trials going on until all the youngsters left the nest.
I did capture several minutes of their voices with a digital recording device which is available.
In 1980 I lived in a cinder-block cabin near Joshua Tree, CA in the high desert. My first experience living so near a bird nest. I got up in the wee early morning hours before dawn to pee and while I was sitting on my toilet peeing still half asleep, I heard this little bird song right out of “Black Bird Singing in The Dead of Night” by The Beatles… right there in my bathroom their perfect melodies coming from by my toilet paper rack just as I reached for some toilet paper… Of course I thought I am dreaming.. I am still way more than half asleep and I know those black bird licks so well taught by The Beatles song and I just start mimicking and whistleing with the Black Bird sounds… running with their rhythms and they kept singing and jamming and we carried on like this for quite some time several long minutes trading licks jamming notes in perfect harmony back and forth while I came to realize there really were live birds singing to and with me in my wall of my cottage coming thru right by the toilet paper dispenser. I am way into improv jamming in fact some of my best performances were improvised right on the spot out of thin air I was baptised by BB King and his band and my muse sanctified me with the gift of the perfect harmonica accompanyment a color coded custom harp score came down in a rainbow cornucopia out of the super heaven and into my top of my head with live animated rhythmic depictions of where to blow and where to suck on my harmonica to produce a perfect blessing addition to BB King’s awesome music… to every song in the band’s set. That is how I discovered my “Third Ear” is what I call this gift to connect with heavenly sent sounds without ever rehearsing to be able to perform a part so that BB King loved it and the club managers could not throw me out for improvising and jamming along. Heaven and Earth United it is a gift to give and keep on giving. This was what was energizing my 3rd ear while I got my flute and really carried on with the Black Birds sounds in the dead of night. Finally I went back to sleep and next day when I was out in the yard I heard more Black Bird sounds and looked around to see a mother bird walking on some plumbing pipes on the side of my cottage right by the bathroom… and then I saw the place where the pipe entered the hollow brick in an opening that was larger than the pipe and I saw the mother bird duck and slip herself inside the hollow brick. Indeed she had built her nest inside the wall there just adjacent to the toilet paper holder. For weeks and weeks I enjoyed the songs coming thru the wall and the comings and goings as she raised her brood and I was thrilled at the occassional spontaneous very enthusiastic jam sessions we coallesced in pure harmony. I do wish I had been able to record these awesome events sent by mother nature to share the magic of music’s roots inspirations and help me merge more and more with natural integrations with wildlife creatures nature spirits.
Do you want to hear alot more about wild birds stories the sparrow that landed on me shoulders and hands on my mom’s patio/bird sanctuary up in Oregon? Or my Power of Love! Power of Prayer! song a whole flock of ravens came round out in the pasture and arranged this song saying come on now let’s pray… or the birds that came 3 times different CA locations and jammed with me in the middle of the night making up very original rifts and licks improvising with me playing harmonica or flute! wow do I wish I had recording equipment to capture those! Never saw the bird or knew what kind of birds they were. Each time just one bird trading licks with me for hours on end. Or how about my deer and foxes stories and music music music dancing with me in the orchards and coming back 3 times they still give me a godzillion chills just thinking about how they blessed me with play and dance and walking with me the deer nuzzling my hand as we walked along in the dark night… always begging at the garden gate to be let in in the daytimes… OH and there’s more more more how about Dolphins and other fish in Mexico and Hawaii???
Thanks Mike. Great stories from everyone. About 30 years ago in the summer I was sitting on our back patio when a young robin came and landed right next to me on the ground. I started talking to him and he then landed on my arm and went to my shoulder. I had noticed him trying to get to the bird bath but the other birds kept chasing him away. I didn’t want to feed him anything because his mom was still doing that (of course she was screaming at him in the yard). I decided to run the hose very gently. He followed me over there and took a shower in the spray. After that his mom took him to the bird bath and chased away the other birds, but he came back for a shower for a couple of days. We went on vacation and when we returned I didn’t see him again. It is so neat to interact with nature. 🙂
I was just reading Carol’s encounter with a Mourning Dove. About a month ago I was waterning some plants outdoors, when a Mourning Dove flew very close to me. I didn’t think much of it. The next day this Dove lands on our back step. He was totally unafraid of me. I talked to him awhile and then gave him some seed and a drink of water. He ate and drank well. He has been coming around ever since. He is extremely sociable and loves being where we are. My husband, mother, and I were breaking beans on our deck yesterday and Dovey, which is what we named him, came and perched on the container we were putting the broken beans in. I would post pics, if someone would tell me how.
Mike, Jerry’s story reminded me of when I was a child…my grandpa had a talking crow my uncle gave him! I have very few memories from that far back but Bill, the crow, I remember!! He would follow behind u and u better watch out because he would nip ur heel or leg, and say WHERE U GOIN’?? WHERE U GOIN’?? That was probably over 50 yrs ago!!
Tell Pam I have boxes of beads and keep meaning to but never do make some things! 🙂 I’ll check them out when I have more time.
Thanks for all ur stories and tips!! 🙂
This reminds of an experience I describe in my book “Amazing Wildlife Encounters.”
SUMMER PLAYPAL
Clear Lake, Northern Minnesota, 1965
My family arrived at the cabin for our annual two-week stay in paradise. The moment we got out of the car, a crow landed on my brother’s head! You probably didn’t expect that. Neither did 6-year-old Danny. The feeling of sharp claws on his scalp was not what he had been looking forward to. We all laughed at Danny’s expense. He cried and thrashed until the crow hopped off his head and perched on the car hood. Once the crow got off him, Danny got over his temporary terror and laughed with us.
My Grandmother explained that some people down the road had found the crow as an abandoned baby and had raised it as a pet. It had befriended some kids in the neighborhood, but they had left for the city just a few days earlier. Apparently the crow had been on the lookout for more kids to play with. We happened to be the next ones that came along.
The crow was our constant companion for the whole visit. It didn’t have a name so we just called it “Crow.” Every morning when we first got up, Crow was perched on a tree just outside the door waiting for us. Crow rode along in the boat when we went fishing and flitted around the garden with us when we picked berries. We had a favorite climbing tree in the field behind the vegetable garden. When we went tree climbing, Crow climbed with us.
Crow loved to play with us and constantly invented new games. He enjoyed untying our shoelaces when we played in the hammock. He always joined us when we cleaned our fish, making snacks of our fish scraps.
Crow’s favorite game was “dive-bomber.” He taught us this game one day when we were walking through the field to our climbing tree. I was his first victim. We wondered what he was up to when he flew way up into the air. He came screaming down at me from behind. I didn’t expect it the first time. Crow whizzed right over my head, close enough to poke at my hair on its way past. We caught on that it was a game when Crow flew high into the sky again. My brother Chris volunteered as the next target and started running. Crow tucked his wings and zoomed down for its attack. As it neared, Chris dove into the waist-high grass to avoid a strike. Crow passed so close that he plucked a hair or two off Chris’s head. Danny and my sister Shawna then had their turns being dive-bombed.
We reached our climbing tree, a favorite for that purpose because we could get all the way to the top. Fifty feet above the field, we were rewarded by a great view of the field, the garden, the lake, and endless primeval forests to the south. Crow accompanied us as we climbed and perching next to us wherever we sat to rest. High up in the tree, he seemed careful not to startle us, as if he understood the dangers of a kid falling from such great heights.
This experience proved to me that crows are highly intelligent creatures. Maybe only dolphins, apes, and some humans are smarter.
When my daughter was about 3 years old her brothers found a pigeon that couldn’t fly – brought it in the house and put it in a box in the kitchen where they fed it with an eyedropper until it gained enough strength to fly – we took it outside and released it but it came back day after day and slept on the meter box that was on the porch. My daughter even put it on the handle bars of her bike when she was riding and on the other half of the double swing and swang with it. It stayed on the porch the entire winter but in the spring the local police started shooting pigeons that had become a nuscance at a local church and “Wheezy” didn’t return so we could only assume he was one that was shot.
I am a lover of hummingbirds and always have more than a few feeders scattered around to entice them to hang around. I had one right outside my kitchen window and more than once, when I would be putting it back up after filling it, a hummer would come by and “buzz” me, right up in my face. One day, I had the kitchen window open (it was one that opened out and to the side — no screen) — well, this little bird came right in my kitchen through the open window while I stood there doing dishes! Long story short, I moved the feeder INSIDE my kitchen window and after that, had hummingbirds in and out of my kitchen all the time, even had them land on my head a few times to check out a flower clip in my hair. What a thrill that they were so trusting — I never got over the fun of having them so close!
A few years ago I had a crow land on my garage roof and cawed at me so I got some cat food and put it on the deck rail, he flew over and had a snack. The crow stayed around all summer and would come when called and eat out of my hand. I have some blurred pictures some where. I thought that was really cool, especially since my dad told me about a similar he had.
He’s been gone 40 years.
What a wonderful story, Mike!!! Thank you for sharing! I have a couple of owl stories for you!
The first was spending one month with a young barn owl 21 years ago when we first moved to Bloomington, IN from NJ! Nearly every night after getting home from the office, we’d be greeted by a young barn owl with this “hee-eeep”ing call (unfamiliar to us coming from the cities of the east coast!). The barn owl is considered an endangered specie in IN. We observed this magnificent beauty for several days before I was confident I could recreate his call (hee-eeep, hee-eeep with accent on the second syllable!). Back and forth we would call to each other night after night. He’d land on our deck railing even with us near-by, spending about an hour with us each night. If our feathered friend didn’t show up at his designated time, all I would have to do is go outside and call. Within minutes, he’d come and land in the same place to announce his arrival!!! Once we put out some raw ground beef, but he never ate any! I made tape recordings of our “conversations,” took pictures and was fortunate enough to introduce him to my daughter and her girlfriend – what an experience for teens from NJ!! This went on through the month until we had plans to go up to Indy for the July 4th celebration. That was the only night we missed seeing our precious bird, but he never returned after that, despite my calling out. We had heard similar “heeps” from within the woods, but he never returned to our railing. It was sad but happy to know our friend had found another haunt or just grew up and moved on!
The second story occurred after our beloved dog Angus(Black Lab/German Shepherd)had passed. We had been in mourning for a few days, missing our dear companion. Upon returning home from my p/t job at church four days later around 1:30 pm, I noticed an unusual sighting on Angus’ outside bed which laid under our front entry overhang. I felt large “eyes” of something small glaring at me but not moving. As I approached “it” coming within 4 feet of “it,” I was amazed to see a little screech owl sitting in the middle of Angus’ bed!!! I immediately entered the house from another entryway in order to tell my husband to look outside on Angus’ bed. After taking photos of this adorable, alert, 7-8″ tall owl, I opened the window for better viewing when the “screech” relocated to the top of our entry-way door light. He stayed there for about 1-1/2 hours. Hating to leave, but needing to get some errands done, we reluctantly left coming back 3 hours later to find our owl friend still there sleeping on top of the light, guarding the house like Angus did (though not from the top of the light)!! We felt we were being sent a message that all is well in doggie heaven and that we should be consoled.
I thoroughly enjoy your writings, Mike and my stories may not be “from the garden,” but I thought some of your readers may enjoy our experiences – we certainly have.
Keep up the GOOD work you and your family do each day! Take good care.
Linda & Mel Erman
Bloomington, Indiana
These stories remind me of something that happened next to our front door. We had holly bushes growing on both sides of the front door. Eventually, one of them grew high enough so that it covered the bottom part of the window. We started hearing these thumps, which turned out to be a crazy red Cardinal. He was attacking his own reflection. I thought he would figure it out, or break his neck! However, he actually kept it up for over a year, until the window itself was showing the wear! I pruned the holly back down, and since he had been launching himself from it, that seemed to stop the attacks. Crazy, aggressive bird!
We raised two baby robins that had been abandoned from the nest once. One had a bad eye and was blind on one side. We found worms for them every day and although it was a lot of work, it was really fun. They finally got big enough to fly and would fly up into the big cottonwood trees around our home, but they would fly down whenever they saw us and land on our shoulder or arm. It was so much fun! Unfortunately though, they were too tame, and a cat got the one with the blind eye and a neighbor accidentally stepped on the other one. They really are better off being wild.
Hi Mike!
Really luvd the story. Isn’t it miraculous how ALL of G-D’s creation can live 2gether w/o harming each other?
I love playing with my hummingbirds with the fine spray of the hose in summer. We live in NW Washington and our Annas Hummingbirds depend on us year around to keep the feeders full and defrosted in winter. They come to my kitchen window to let me know the feeder is empty.
Love the story, Mike.
A dove came and stayed with me for a few days, along the same lines as previous post.
A crow used to show up in my yard and yell “Mama!” I kept looking for a little child.
Another crow would walk with me each day on the way to High School, through the woods. It has one leg, so maybe it hopped, rather than walked. I love these creatures.
Enjoyed the story, Mike!
The Big Bang Theory just last night had a
sit com about Sheldon finding a Blue Jay on his ledge, flew in his apartment, adopted him and then he flew away. I bent over with
laughter.We need more of these sit coms.
Really enjoyed your story, Mike. Also enjoyed replies with stories from Jerry, Carol, George and Rene.
Jerry, speaking of hops. My grandparents had a dairy farm in the Town of Grafton in WI
and in the 50’s I remember the hops vine that grew across the whole front porch which (an open porch). I took a vine home & planted it along a fence where it grew quickly; and onetime when I was yanking some of the plant out of the ground I got a rash from it on my forearm. The rash felt similar to getting pricked when trimming juniper bushes. I should have worn long sleeves!
As a child I was naturally my parent’s garden wed puller. Even after the corn was taller than me I had to pull weeds. The Swallows flying around would dive bomb the garden area for bugs and I never thought about it until it happened. I got pooped on right on top of my head. I screamed and ran into the house to wash my hair. Needless to say, I wore a hat after that.
Mary, I remember the swallows on my grandparents farm always dive bombing us kids when we would go into the machine shed. Luckily I didn’t get pooped on. 🙂
We call my husband Saint Francis because animals always gravitate to him. He was a letter carrier. One day while delivering the mail, a little blue & white parakeet flew down and landed on his wrist. Of course he was surprised, especially since the little bird stayed with him as he finished his route. The bird stayed on his shoulder as he drove home. When he walked in the door I thought he was joking and had a fake bird on his shoulder until the little bird flew over to the curtain rod. We named him Pretty Bird and he stayed with us for several years and was such a nice little pet.
I was taking a break form working indoors to watering the parched garden with a hose. I know – best to use a soaker but…this day a tiny humming bird flew up towards my face as i was wate4ring & ‘peeped’ at me. it kept hoovering near my face ‘peeping’ then went towards the water stream. After several “peeps’ I suddenly understood it wanted me to soften the stream of water. It was wonderful to see the hummingbird playing & flying through in the softer mist spray being so close to my hand I could feel the beat of its wings. Once it was done it flew closer to my hand & then to my face again but the tone of the different ‘peep’ was almost as if it was saying;”Thanks for that!”
Hi Mike-
As a kid, my dad came home with a fuzzy, little ball. The little ball looked up at us through big owl eyes and we were hooked. Dad raised that owl until he was large, and finally took him outside where it promptly flew away. Dad would go out daily and wait, within minutes that owl would fly down to dad and get his food. A couple of months went by and the owl stopped coming back.
Ha Ha. The crow story above reminded me of a Jackdaw that used to sit on the goal posts during soccer games and call out advice. “Down the wing!” Or, “Pass it! Pass It!” Sometimes, “Goal!” Whether or not a goal had been scored did not seem to matter. It was eventually killed when hit by the ball. It turned out it is was a local farmers pet and he let it fly loose all day but it always came home at night to sleep in his shed.
I have had two interesting garden experiences:
One day I heard something on the other side of the fence.. a flapping.. well when I peeped through the fence, I saw a mother bird with her baby. She was holding it by the beak and the baby was flapping its wings, exercising I believe. This went on for quiet sometime. They were on the ground and never noticed me.
Another time I was in the pool and noticed a butterfly on the edge. I went over to look more closely, thinking it would take off. No, it stayed there watching me as closely as I watched it! I felt like it was trying to tell me something but I can’t speak butterfly. These things take place all the time in our gardens; we just have to be quiet and listen and watch. Loved all your stories too!
In spring 2007 my husband told me there was 3baby chipmunks out by the garden gate and no signs of a mother.Anyways,Being an animal lover,and a Mom ,the word “Baby”rang loud and clear.So we went out and rescued the little darlings ,some eyes wern”t open yet .I said to him What do we know about raiseing baby chippy’s? and then I thought,”The Computer” anything you want to know is on there.All that I did was type in Baby Chipmonks and it gave me everything I needed to raise them .We had so much fun doing it .I mixed up the formula they gave and put about 2cc in a syringe(not a needle )and one by one I held them while they ate .They were Starving and even bit my finger because it smelled like formula.they drank their fill and then it was nap time .We put an oval basket with my husbands soft dress socks in the basket and they all nuzzeled under the sock’s and went to sleep.
We raised them for about 10 weeks and then we released them back into the wild where they belong .I thought I was going to cry butI made it.kinda like sending your last child to school.We quit handeling them soon after we got them .We did not want them to get too friendly with us .We wanted them to live like chippy’s should.Although they’erwas one I called “Little Girl” She would come right up to me in the cage when she heard my voice.She was real friendly But the other two?forget it ,They looked like they had the Devil in their eyes.It was fun raising them ,and I would do it again.But only by the book . Barb
As a Master Garden intern one of my many opportunities to be involved in the MG program is to assist on school garden tours. During the height of the butterfly season, I was conducting a tour when one of the young teachers ( a friend of my daughter’s who as a teen had spent the night at my house) called me over. We then witnessed the emerging butterfly from the chrysalis which then proceeded to rest and dry its’ wings. It was nice to share that moment with a friend.
Not so much a gardening story, but I work at home and am at the back of the house all the time. I feed all the urban wildlife around here, and a male cardinal figured out who was handing out the food. For 5 or 6 years he has been landing on the little ledge in the middle of the window, looking inside and telling me to come out with the seeds. It’s all day long when he’s feeding babies. The sparrows have figured out that when he does this, there will soon be a nice spread, so they are always right behind him. I talked to a neighbor who is feeding him, too. We think he just makes the rounds to all the backyard buffets, I don’t know how much “natural” food he really eats.
We had a similar experience with a young mourning dove. It walked out of some bushes one day and stayed with us for several weeks. When we ate on the patio we had to fix a plate for him or he would eat our food! He came when we whistled and if we weren’t home would go visit the neighbors. I have pictures of him sitting on my husband’s shoulder and one of both of them sleeping together in the swing chair on the patio. We named him “Poopsie” for obvious reasons! It was sad to see my husband whistling for him for days after he just disappeared. I think Poopsie must have been teased by his friends who convinced him it wasn’t normal for a bird to be friends with people. One of the neatest experiences we’ve ever had.
Good morning, Carol….
I have tears in my eyes from reading about your precious dove sitting with your husband and both sleeping in the swing chair on your patio.
I too, experienced a bird tale , that all who saw the bird ( at my daughter’s outdoor wedding ) explained to me ,that ” it had to be from my husband” who had died at an early age and who was especially attached to our youngest daughter, Maureen.( the bride ).
Is their any chance that you could share the pictures you have of that beautiful companion ? Sharing with me or the group ?
Blessings, Patricia
Thank you Patricia for your lovely story. I will “try” to post some pics but it will take a while. I struggle with posting pics!:)
such touching stories. 🙂 We have a red bird that continues to peck at my daughters bedroom window. i have pictures. not sure why she keeps coming back. its been months.
I was visitng my daughter one day in the hot Ohio summer. She lived in the Hocking Hills of Ohio. I was at an outdoor table and all of a sudden something landed on the table. I looked and it was a hummingbird. It just sat there and it was panting and breathing hard. As I got closer to it I could see its little thread like tounge sticking out. I asked my daughter to fill the hummer feeder from the mixture that I had made earlier. She brought it out and I put a small stick under the bird and it steped onto it. I then put the feeder up to the bird and it gradually steped onto the ring and started feeding. We then got the camera and I have a picture of me holding the feeder and the little bird perched on it drinking. What a great experience, that I will always remember. It finally got rested and flew up into the tree and sat there awhile and rested. Later it flew off.
I live/work on a huge pond on the East nd Of Long Island…while working in the yard last year a swan came up and would just sit quietly near me watching me…so I would talk to him. This year upon returning I didn.t see him…so had actually hoped he had found a mate…but he showed up , alone… and has gotten even closer to me following me everywhere….definitely not as cool as your robin story but this swan is so funny he even went in our swimming pool…if my boss ever saw that…he would have fired me …and i pasted the pic all over facebook LOL!!!
Cute story Mike ! I was trimming some of my neighbors Hop’s that like to creep through the fence into my yard..(I am sure you know how much it hurts when one of them Tendrels grabs your leg while mowing the lawn !) I heard what sounded like a young child saying “Hello” in their back yard. Knowing they do not have young children, I was curious as to who it may be. I peered over the fence and replied back..and again heard Hello. Looking all over their yard, I could not see anyone..when the next Hello was in their Tree ! I looked up and could see a lone Crow..and when I said Hello..it ‘Answered back with Hello”..several times ! I raced into the house to get my video camera, as ‘No One will ever believe this’ ! I started filming, said Hello several times and was answered with ‘Caw-Caw’ everytime ! Stupid Bird !
Stupid Bird !
Nice story. I would love to be adopted by a bird. Wonder how my cats would like it? 🙂
o could beat that one? We had a cockatiel do something similar once at an rv rally, but she was tame. I’ve never heard of a wild bird doing that – but what a fantastic experience! This story made my day 🙂
Mike, this little bird proves that we are the caretakers of our environment. I was a noble thing for the kids to nurture the bird back to health. How cool to say a robin took up with you! At my house, if that were to ever happen, the girls would nurture it to death! Too much love.
Great story! Thanks for sharing it! Sure hoped that she learned to be a bird.
I have lost a tremendous amount of cheery tomatoes this season. On might get nervous to the huge decline but I discovered the reason. From 40 pints every three days to none.
Why you may ask. I’ll tell you. We raise our own turkeys for the year. We have them for thanksgiving, Christmas, new years day, waster and other times we want to eat like kings. Well this year is no exception. We have 20 beautiful heritage turkey babies. They can fly out of the chicken tractor so they do ever chance they get.
Last week I went out to pick the cherry tomatoes. To my complete disappointment I found none. I was shocked and did not understand what happened. As I walked through the rows of plants I pondered the trouble. It’s to hot, to dry or something. Then I saw the culprits. Four babies come walking out of the far end of the row. They were done eating. The turkeys found the tomatoes and removed any tomato with color. They got them all. Not even one for me.
I guess it is ok since I will get to eat tomatoes at thanksgiving, Christmas and even Easter. They will just taste a bit different this year.
Brady