The Magical Mystery Bird came into our lives one Sunday afternoon early this summer. It was a Sunday like any other Sunday, hot, dry and I was out mowing the lawn. Our yard has a good number of weeds, a bit of grass that I'm desperately trying to encourage and a large dirt spot next to the driveway. We have two cars and one carport so whomever gets home first get the carport and the other gets the dirt spot. This dirt spot does indeed have some grass attempting to grow in it so while I mow I run it over the dirt spot.

This particular early summer, Denise's mom was hunting for a car. Her's had died and it was taking her a while to find the right car so while she was looking, Denise had loaned her her car. This meant that the dirt spot had been unused for a while and actually had long blades of grass giving the dirt some nice contrast.

So, there I am, happily mowing along, my mind a million miles away when all of a sudden, not two feet in front of the mulching blades of death that is my 6hp mower, something moved. It was a small, grey, dirty someting. Being the brave and quick-thinking man that I am I let the dead-man go and went to investigate. Now, my first and indeed second thoughts were: "Oh wow, I almost mulched a toad."

Imagine my surprise when I got closer and my thoughts changed to: "Holy Cow! I almost mulched a....baby bird?!"

Indeed it was a baby bird. Small, grey and dirty. The little guy (girl? who can tell? They don't have easily identified bits.) was just getting his feathers and the shafts were still covered. Always being a macho man-of-action I scooped my find into my hands and yelled for Denise. Out she comes, thinking I had just chopped my foot off and I presented her with my find.

Needless to say she was a surprised as I was. A quick look at the situation placed the nearest possible nest site about 50 -60 feet straight up. We checked the bird out as carefully as we could and found that he was remarkably uninjured. Legs were intact, feet were gripping and the mouth was HUGE!! Obviously he thought we were mommy and daddy because the frist time I whistled, the head came up and the mouth opened so quickly, I thought I was being attacked.

So here we are, a baby bird, much to young to be out of the nest has just been discovered in your yard...what do you do?

That's easy...call Mom. Denise got her mom on the phone (a woman who seems to have a working knowledge on how to do most everything and is espically good with animals) and explained that I had just found a baby....well...a baby bird. What kind of bird? That's a good question. The little guy was small and grey, there were blue jays, mocking birds and cardinals always at our bird feeders so this must be a small, grey, baby mocking bird. Well mom said, find a nest to put it in, make a paste with dog food or buy some baby food and take care of it.

That is exacly what we did. We found a small plastic basket that seemed about right and casted about for some nest-like material. By a sheer stroke of luck earlier that summer, some little birds built a nest in a can in our carport but never moved in and had abanoned it a month or more back. So we pulled the nest out, fit it down into the basket and voila, we had a nesting site for the bird. A couple nails later and the little guy was resting comfortably, hanging on the side of the tree that he fell out of.

We got some baby food and fed him morning and night, each day hoping that when we came home we would see a mommy bird taking care of her missing baby. We would unhook the basket and put it (bird and all) into our laundry room after we saw a cat checking it out one night. Each morning, more food and back out onto the tree. One day it rained and by sheer dumb luck, I had put the basket on the one section of the tree that didn't get real wet (a limb started about three feet above it).

Then one day, it happened. I drove home and saw a blue jay on the edge of the basket. Oh no!! An evil blue jay is attacking our mocking bird baby!! Sitting there, trying to decide what to do, Momma bent over and baby opened his mouth and in went Mommy's beak! She then picked a bit of garbage out of the nest and flew away. I was on the phone in an instant. "Denise! Our baby mocking bird is a baby blue jay!!" I told Denise what I had seen and she was amazed and excited. No more feeding!

Over the next few days it was amazing to watch the little guy develop. They really gor up fast. By the next weekend the little guy was standing and even perching on the side of the basket. I was outside with a friend working on my car when I saw the little guy on the ground. Now he wasn't even flying and shouldn't have been out of the nest.

Jim to the rescue again! As I got close to him, he started hopping towards the road and screeching. Then just as I got hold of him...WHAMMO!! I get whacked in the back of the head by Mom (much to my friend and Denise's amusement). I wasn't hurt and quickly gathered up the baby and got him back into the nest without incident.

As fun as it was watching our little baby grow up, all good things must come to an end. Driving home one day Denise said "I bet he's gone today." She was right, our little birdy had flown the coop. There was no signs of struggle, no feathers just no more bird. This led us to the conclusion that he had flown away to be a happy bird.

Just think, if something had caught my eye at that moment I was mowing or if he hadn't moved, I wouldn't be telling this story. Funny how things work out.