rest in peace, little bird

baby blue jay in our yard

This cute little baby blue jay lived a short life in our yard today, the mama blue jay flapping and squawking above my head whenever I approached. I was able to catch the bird and help it through to the other side of the fence, but it kept hopping back through the chain links.

I began wondering if it was on a suicide mission since my yard contained five kids and a frisky dog today, while across the fence was quiet, empty, and safe.

But a wildlife rescue volunteer told me it was likely getting a flying lesson and may be hopping around my yard for a day or two until he gets the hang of it. So I kept the dog out of the yard and checked on him often and everything seemed to be fine. The bird and its mama even disappeared for a couple hours, so I assumed the flying lesson took.

But just before dinner the baby appeared again, and the mama squawked above my head so I shoo’d it back through the chain link fence to keep it safe from the dog.

Then on our way to the farmer’s market I checked on the bird one last time and found it dead, stiff. Poor thing. I don’t know what was wrong with it – was it injured to begin with? was it sick? The kids and I noticed some yellow puss coming out of one eye, so maybe it wasn’t well to begin with.

What breaks my heart is that the mama bird no longer squawks over the yard where the baby was hopping around, but she now squawks over the trash cans where we laid him to rest.

She kept a watchful eye on her baby and knows exactly where he is.

2 thoughts on “rest in peace, little bird”

  1. Aww, that is really sad, especially the last part. 🙁 I second the ‘nature is brutal’ comment :/

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