Yes, I know it sounds bad. But it's not what you're thinking.
One by one, the eggs in the blender began to hatch.
This is where we left off last time. If you haven't read that, here it is:
Part Three: A Bird in the Home
And here are Parts One and Two:
A Bird on the Wire: Part One
First two eggs...
The photos are gathered from my Facebook posts, with very short commentary. I'm writing this months after the fact. Just catching up!
Then three.
Mama patiently sat on the eggs. For hours on end, and all night long.
One by one, the eggs began to hatch.
Such cute babies!
Mum and Dad came to visit several times a day, bringing titbits for their babies. Here they both parents are in attendance.
I'm starving!
Lunchtime!
I tried filming them. But she looked up, saw the camera, and freaked out. So I removed it and never tried again. Invasion of privacy! Look at that face! She's furious.
After a while, they began to explore. One by one, in order of birth.
The mother bird was extremely confident. I could go right up to the fridge and open it while she was
on the nest. Dad bird wasn't so happy. If I was in the kitchen he'd chatter angrily and try to chase me away. He'd fly very close to my head. I could tell he wanted me to stay away. This photo is of my cleaning lady, Shanti, standing right up next to the fridge. Mama bird, on the blender, is unbothered by her presence.
One morning, I walked out of my bedroom door to find what looked like a little ball of fluff on the floor. I picked it up, and you guessed it: it was a baby bird! I put it back in the nest, but predictably, it didn't stay there.
Big drama followed. The biggest bird, predictably, hopped out of the nest and once again fell to the ground. My cleaner was here; she saw it, and called me. Chick was behind the gas bottle. One of the parents was on the fridge looking down and frantically chattering.
Parent (couldn't tell if mum or dad) absolutely panicking, trying to protect it from me.
Eventually, put it in a basin and that's where it istayed, for the time being. It couldn't fly up as yet; so it was safe for the time being. T
This was just the beginning. One down, two to go...
Very soon, that little bird was hopping all around the place. But it soon found the window. And there it stayed. It could go no further; the window is closed in with rie mesh. Often, mama came and sat outside, as if to give encouragement.
In this image you can see the chick gazing out the window. Just above him, on another bar, is his mama. On the terrace outside, sitting on a wire at the edge of the terrace -- that's papa. And beyond it all is Freedom.
This baby hopped freely about the apartement. Then one day, I saw him sitting on the threshold. The foor was open. Both parents were on the terrace, watching and chattering. He sat there for the longest time, just looking out. And then, all of a sudden -- he flappped his wings, and was gone! The parents flew away with him. Over the treetops, and far away.
Gone.
Pretty soon, the middle bird was gone as well. I did not witness that one's escape. Now there was just one little chick left. The smallest and weakest one. I didn't want this one to get lost so I put him in quite a deep tub. However, it was too deep. The parents seemed afraid to fly down into it. I put the blender into it, with the nest, so that if it fell out, it was safe. But I had to figure out a different solution.
I bught one of those plastic storage boxes. This one was almost transparent, and the parents approved; they would fly down into it to feed their baby. I put some straw at the bottom to make it a bit cosy. However, the baby was very weak. It seemed thin and hardly able to hop around. I put the blender in the box, and that helped. It hopped on to the cable, and hopped a but higher every day.
Mama and Papa came to feed it many times a day. The last I saw of it was this - both on the edge of the box, Mama with food in her beak.
The followig day - Poof. They were both gone.
And so the story comes to a happy end.
Thank you for reading.
