A New Experience

Articles from Boomer Magazine in Richmond, VA

A New Experience

Written by Lori Ross

Thursday, 17 June 2010 15:47

      When you're 55 years old, new experiences don't come along often. This marks my first time seeing birds from near birth and watching their new lives unfold in front of me.

      On June 8th, we moved in to a new home that had a bird's nest built on a speaker on the covered lanai, just a few feet away from the windowed back door. With ease, I had a clear shot, or a "bird's eye view" of the home and the three babies inside. On our first day, the babies looked like newly hatched fuzzballs with big open mouths, and the parents looked like every aspect of their existence was to protect and feed these newbies. Mom and Dad perched on the ceiling fan a few yards away when they weren't hunting for food or sitting with the nest.

      Day by day, the birds changed in appearance dramatically and a week later the birds were stuffing out of the nest. It was harder to tell the difference between the babies and the parents from appearance. I checked on them regularly - about every awake at-home hour every day, but the big babies stayed overflowing but attached to home. This morning my husband saw it first, and told me the babies were perched on the ceiling fan.

      From the "take time to smell the roses" life mantra, I took an extra half hour and enjoyed immensely watching the babies take flight for the first time. For the first several minutes. the three babies stayed attached to the fan, sometimes flapping wings but never taking off. The parents flew close by. Eventually one baby flew about five feet, looked shocked (truly did) and flew back to the safety of the ceiling fan. They sat on the ceiling fan for another five minutes. As nature took its course, they did what they are built to do and the fun began. The family of five flew all over the back yard, flew up and down, practiced nosedives, flew back to the nest and out again, flew in more circles, ventured a bit further then back. They did it together as a family, and it looked like more fun than a trip to Disneyland.

      I don't know what the afterlife brings, but if I could choose to come back as something I'd choose to be one of those birds, and I can only imagine the fun it would be to find out the purpose of wings.

      Have fun, my little birdies!