FreeLists / tn-bird / [tn-bird] To a Phoebe Dying Young: A Cautionary Tale

[EGLEAVES@xxxxxxx]

I don't know what it is about phoebes that endears them to us.  Perhaps it's 
their quiet grace as flycatchers; perhaps it's their approachability; perhaps 
it's their attentiveness to their young and their nests.

At least so I thought until Bob Sargent set me straight on the latter point.  
In any case, we have enjoyed watching a pair of phoebes raise two broods on 
our back porch this summer, five in the first litter, four in the second.  
After the first brood, I took down the nest and cleaned around it, only to 
watch them return in a few days and construct a new nest on the same beam 
above a light on our covered back porch.

As for the baby bird out of the nest to which Bob responded so informatively, 
a few minutes after I sent the message last night I noted that it had made 
its way across the porch to the very edge, with a ten-foot fall to concrete 
below.  It appeared to be ready to leap when I decided to grab it, as gently 
as I could--too gently, it seems, for he wriggled loose and fell to his death 
on the rocks below.

When I checked on their offspring, the parent birds scolded me mercilessly 
and deservedly, making me feel even worse than I did about the matter.  
Today, they've returned to their duties with the remaining chicks and life 
goes on.  Minus one.

Ed Gleaves
Nashville, TN


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