I am sitting and feeling heavy as a pregnant elephant again. The smoke is gone and the sun is finally out. I am guilty again of scrolling through FB and getting hooked on 2 sad stories. One was the 9 year old girl thought to have been killed by her father. The other story was was about a man who got sucked into a MRI machine and died as a consequence. These news stories added no value to my life. They made me feel worse than I already did. Yet I gave them my valuable time and energy. Curiosity and human nature can be our own worse enemies.
On a cheerier note, I’ve just watched a baby robin on the deck railing. It landed there with its mother. The mother flew off, leaving baby all by itself. It took a few tentative steps, assessing the situation for quite awhile. I could see that it wants to do something but was afraid. Its body language was crying: Mom, where are you? I am scared! I was getting impatient waiting for it to make a move. Mother Robin was sitting on the telephone wire watching also.
After what seemed like an eternity to me, it hopped down the railing, hesitated, then took a small flight and landed on the barbecue. More confident, it flew back onto the railing. After a little look around, it took off in flight before I could sneak up and take a photo. The nest is empty now except for one lonely blue egg, unhatched. I wonder if it is a ‘bad’ egg. There were 5 eggs to start with. We found one egg on the ground earlier in the season. It must have been too crowded and it got booted out. After a few days the egg disappeared. Food for a predator?
The nest is well hidden among the grapes by the sunroom. The grapes have hosted a nest every year. With practice I am able to peer through the venetian blinds and spy on them. This year, I counted 3 beaks reaching for food. Now they’re gone. The nest is empty except for one lonely unhatched egg. Will mom and pop come back and fill it again this year?
onethousandandtwo 
Lily, I scan the news every morning, through several news emails from large organizations and small. I saw the story about the man killed by the MRI machine and at first went into fear. I get MRIs regularly for cancer followup. Then I read there was a rogue metal chain from an exercise device– who let him get on the table with that thing??? So of course the magnets grabbed the metal chain. I won’t make that mistake, so fear dismissed.
How wonderful you can surveil the birds’ nest through the blinds! My surveillance is more random. For several days, I watched a young bird hopping around in my shrubs, apparently having trouble with his right foot. Then he got the hang of it and likely flew off into the Park. I am so glad you’ve had a day without smoke!
What a beautiful moment to witness! How brave that little robin was, taking its first flights and building confidence step by step! As for the lone egg, it does happen sometimes that one isn’t viable, but the others clearly thrived under their parents’ care – and your supervision 🙂
This touched me deeply—how beautifully you wove the robin’s flight into the ache of an empty nest. There’s so much quiet truth in watching them grow, hesitate, and finally take off.