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Tuesday, April 24, 2012

There's a baby in my daughter's hat

Yesterday evening at little before 9:30, I took my dog, Chiquita, out for her last chance to void her bladder. We walked out to the street and I waited in my usual spot. I noticed she was straying a bit from where I was standing, so I hollered at her. I don't know if I startled her, but a large dove came flapping out of the tree I was standing under, and about a second later, this fuzzy little shape bounced off of a car and ended up in the gutter. It was her baby!
I managed to pick up the fledgling and tried to put her back up in the tree. I couldn't reach the nest, so I placed her in a spot where I thought she (I don't know why I think it was a she, but it works) would be safe, but no sooner had I released my hold on her, she promptly fell to the ground with a thud. I thought for sure she was injured, but after picking her up again, she seemed to be okay.
Now my brain was turning, what are you supposed to do when you find a fledgling bird? Immediately I recalled that if you can't put the bird back into its nest, you are to place it in a safe place on the ground where the parent birds can tend to it. So, I tucked her under a nearby bush and went home.
About 10 minutes later, my daughter Cheryl came home and said "Mom! Guess what?" To which I replied "A baby dove." Sure enough, when she got out of her car and started up the walk, the baby dove came running out from under the bush straight at my daughter, flapping its little wings (wingers, as she called them).
So, to make a long story short, we kept the baby bird indoors overnight for safekeeping and in the morning, we got a ladder and I was able to put her back into the nest.
I only hope she was reunited with her mama.

UPDATE: The baby bird was indeed reunited with her mama. About a week after we returned her to the nest, we saw her with her mama. She had fully fledged and was perched on the roof of our neighbors house, begging for food. Mama obliged, but soon flew off with her baby following a few seconds later.

Monday, April 2, 2012

Let There Be Light

Since I moved into my house three years ago, I've wanted to replace the dining room chandelier with some track lighting. The light from the chandelier was simply overwhelming. I purchased a nice flexible track unit from Home Depot a couple of months ago, and finally got around to installing it Sunday morning. It was quite the challenge doing it by myself, but I managed to "git 'er done". I think it turned out rather nice.