Birdies

Here in Colorado there are Western Wood Peewees. Not Herman. Birds. (There are Eastern Wood Peewees too, but based on the song we hear we’ve got the western ones.)

They’re cute. They’re part of the family flycatcher, and they’re really good at eating bugs. We love them, except at 5 in the morning when they’re “wheet, wheet, wheet”ing outside our bedroom door. 

Wheeet, wheeeet, wheeeet.

When we first moved here, Peewees moved into our indoor riding arena cum barn. The barn is big (big as a barn, ha ha ha!), with the ceiling about 20 feet high in the middle, and big metal struts. (We love our barn, too.). Swallows also moved into the barn.

It was like West Side Story in there. The Peewees were on one end, the Swallows on the other, and they would meet in the middle and perform Peewee and Swallow aerobatics, trying to impress one another. No knives, thankfully. The Swallows were the more elegant fliers, but the Peewees had attitude, so gradually the Swallows moved out. (We were sorry to see them go - there’s something about swooping Swallows that is very soothing.)

The Jets of the West Side Story Barn

Next year, Peewees in the barn.

Then the pigeons moved in. It started with two. Now, several years later, there are a few generations, so maybe six or eight - it’s hard to tell because they don’t hold still for long.

Pigeons are masters at making space their own. I don’t know if they stared down the Peewees or just frightened them with their size and cooing, but the Peewees moved along.

Move along….

One family moved along to a space under our deck. Unfortunately, the piece of wood they chose decided to come unhinged just when the babies were about a week and an half old. Down came the nest, with three babies, and we stumbled across it when we came in from feeding the horses.

We know cats and dogs. We know horses. We did not know what to do about three Peewee babies and a nest. A storm was coming in, rapidly. No time to fix the board. We gathered up the babies and the nest and put it in one of the pine trees near their former home and hoped the parents would find them.

Next day, Glenn fixed the board and put the nest and babies back. There was a little movement in the nest. He saw one of the parents find the nest and sit in it. But we don’t know if the babies ultimately survived, and we’re not going to stick our human noses into the situation and make it any worse with our smell and clumsiness.

This is one of those times when the best thing we can do is let go. The nest fell for a reason. We found it (before the dogs had a chance to destroy anything) for a reason. We don’t know what that reason is (yet), so we’re sending the parents and the babies love and light, wherever they may be, and hope that their journey was what they wanted for their lives. It was a learning experience, and a big lesson in compassion - for the birds and for ourselves.

The Peewees are still around. We hope they haven’t been too traumatized, and that they’ll come back next year. Maybe we’ll even be happy when they wake us at 5am with their “wheet, wheet, wheeeet.” Yes. We WILL be happy. They are part of us, and we part of them. It’s a beautiful synergy.