“Prediction,” 11″x9″ watercolor, Donna Lyons ©2013

“Nature”

By Marty Coffin Evans ©2017

The birds chirped, the dogs raced around the yard and all seemed fine that sunny Sunday morning. Or, was it?

“The dogs are chasing the birds in the back yard,” my husband said. Chasing amounted to them running back and forth beside the fence, looking up all the while. Their racing action was not unlike what they did when squirrels happened along the fence or up in the trees.

While we didn’t know it at the time, this turned out to be different. Later in the morning, I noticed Simon had something in his mouth, although just what, was not clear. My bribery attempts were futile. Eventually, I corralled him enough to remove the item from his mouth – part of a dead baby bird. Oh no, I thought, as I carefully wrapped up its remains.

Back outside Simon went only to resume his search under the big, sprawling Bird’s Nest Spruce near the fence. Adding to his anxious quest, a pair of birds were calling and flying overhead going from side to side above the shrub. They flitted, occasionally diving closer, as they continued their quest to find their fallen young.

Looking up high in the neighbor’s tree, we spotted a large nest. Apparently one of their young had fallen from the nest presumably landing near or under the shrub.

Simon soon appeared from under the sprawling shrub again with something in his mouth.  Fortunately, this time he dropped it. We carefully retrieved this baby bird which too was dead.

It seemed like for an hour or so the parents called or sang a repeated plaintiff song apparently hoping to find their fallen chicks. At some point they must have decided all was lost. Their song seemed to repeat itself with its trills and notes.

When did these little chicks fall from the nest?  Did the squirrels cause this mishap? How many little birds remained in need of their parents’ care? We’ll never know.

With sadness for this little family, we said we were sorry. Yes, it’s nature and yet, it dimmed the joy of that sunny Sunday morning.

Some comfort came from the verse in Matthew (10:29), “Not a single sparrow can fall to the ground without your Father knowing it.” We hope so.

May 2025