It was about.... a month ago (flashback music)...
Cherries were ripening on our cherry tree, the sun was out, birds and bees puttered around, and the trees and plants were howling with a deep green as they soaked up the sun. Flowers were exploding with color and I was out on the deck playing with my wonderful little glacier toy driving my cars into its depths and tossing raisins that I wanted to save into the blue water (upon returning the next day these raisins had grown plump and juicy!).
I was minding my own business when I heard chirping above me. I looked up to see a wonderful little bird in the tree (you will have to excuse the horrible pictures, I am only 15 months old and my job at National Geographic is still pretty far off).
Could you see the bird? Well it's there, trust me.
After I took the picture of the bird, I watched it for awhile. It stayed in the tree for a few minutes and then flew toward the garage where it landed on these small houses that hang on the side, and to my amazement it went inside the little house. Now this was shocking as I thought those houses were just funny little things my parents had put up for some reason or to make their house look bigger. It turns out these are actually bird houses and my new found fascination had found itself a home.
I went and grabbed my dad and showed him what was going on. He was shocked that a bird would actually use these rickety old houses as well. We watched as the bird brought in small little pieces of plants.
My dad said the bird was building a nest to lay eggs.
I was very excited because my dad told me the eggs would turn into small little baby birds. I was going to experience the miracle of life!
I noticed that Ripley was also very excited about this miracle and wanted to congratulate the bird because he started hanging out below the birds new home and watched it fly in and out.
At some point mom called us in for lunch. I can't remember what we had but my mom makes me lots of yummy foods, so I am sure it was delicious! During lunch there was a large noise from outside. My dad cursed and said "the bird house" and ran outside. I got scared and went after him. The bird house was on the ground and Rippy ran past me.
My dad carefully picked up the bird house and attached it back to the garage. He also then put a stick under it to hold it up because the top busted up into small pieces.
(and yes, the above picture was taken after this incident, but I thought it still fit well enough)
After we fixed it my dad was worried the bird might not return for the eggs, and Ripley was worried he might not get a tasty snack after all. You can see Ripley is searching for a tasty treat on the ground.
After about an hour the bird came back and was laying on the eggs again inside. Ripley was brought in and then day turned to night, and night turned to day, and days turned to a week.
That next week, while we were eating lunch again there was a large crash from outside. Another curse rose from my dad followed by "RIPLEY!!!" as he ran outside. I once again got scared, and went after him. Mom came running and picked me up. When we got outside the bird house was again on the ground busted up, and the eggs were strewn across the ground. My dad was looking around for something to put the eggs back in the nest with.
We eventually got the bird house back up. Two of the eggs were destroyed but we had saved two of them. The bird returned and was squawking loudly as it jumped from branch to branch in the tree.
The bird went to the house, peered inside and then took off. We checked the house from time to time but after a day or so of not seeing the bird it was obvious it had had enough of our crappy little bird apartment and had decided to move on.
Poor birds.
I still love Ripley.
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