Happy Mom's Day

I have been meaning to post this picture for about a week now but have been lazy. So I decided Mother's Day was an appropriate day to post it.

Chloe had her babies. Chloe is the mama bird who had built a nest in the corner of our porch, which we discovered when we were moving in. Since I don't know much about birds, I can't tell you what kind of bird she is--small, mostly gray, with a little bit of white on her throat, and very pretty.

Chloe's been part of our routine since we moved here. During the day, she was usually out, I assume hunting for food. If you did see her during the daylight hours, she would usually fly off as soon as she saw you. But after dark, she was always there, taking care of those eggs, and there was nothing you could do to scare her off then.

When we moving in,, there was also a wasp building a nest right near Chloe's. We weren't quite so accepting of the wasp, so to the store for wasp spray we went. But we had to spray with care, for fear of contaminating Chloe's nest. Eventually I was smart enough to grab a piece of cardboard from a moving box and hold it in front of the nest to protect the eggs while we sprayed.

Still, I was worried about whether the spray might have caused any harm. But about two weeks ago, Kevin came home from work with some good news--and bad. Chloe's babies had hatched. But one of them had fallen out of the nest. Surprisingly, it was still alive, but for fear of Chloe abandoning the nest if we picked it up and put it back, there wasn't anything we could do to rescue the poor hatchling.

I am happy to say, however, that her other two babies are alive and well--and apparently have been learning to fly this week! Since Thursday, we have only occasionally spotted them in the nest. I haven't seen them in flight yet, but Kevin did yesterday. I suppose this means we won't be seeing Chloe or her babies much longer.

But I have to admit, it has been a privilege to watch this little miracle of nature unfold. It's funny how the little things add such richness to your life. So thanks, Chloe--and Happy Mother's Day.