From the kitchen glass door while I cooked, I watched your mom flying back and forth picking up dead grass and twigs in the yard and flying up towards the roof, at times taking a peek or watching me from the roof as I stuck my head out the door to find out where your nest was being built. Days after when I walked through the backyard gate and looked up, I finally saw your nest resting on an electrical box on the wall close to my bedroom!!! Congratulations, I thought. You baby robins are coming! Maybe four as always? What bad luck, I felt, for in the next two weeks you will be loudly chirping, incessantly chirruping, begging for food every day at 3:00 a.m. and interrupting my sleep as it has always been every spring. Cheep, cheep from a nest up a fir tree in the front yard. Cheep, cheep from a nest somewhere on the roof above my bedroom window. Cheep, cheep from a nest under the back porch. Crying just like a newborn would in the middle of the night and waking up the whole household every two to four hours. What else can I do but cover my ears with my pillow for two weeks while you strengthen your wings and prepare for independence? Then silent nights… For you won’t be dependent on your hardworking parents anymore. You’ll be feasting on grubs, bugs and worms on your own. And what about the crying infant, you ask? Well, it might take about 18 years before it’s capable of earning a living! Aren’t parent birds lucky! MLJ/05/06/2022/SpringInNECalgary
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