Even birds parent.
Tonight I was in the yard clipping off the trees that seem to sprout in the rock garden and any where they shouldn’t, when I noticed a very young bird sitting and looking at me from the thick foliage of a spruce in out neighbor’s yard. It fluffed up its tiny wings that were, apparently, not strong enough yet to carry him into flight. The neighbor’s cat was hanging around – till Maisy, our dog, spotted it and sent it high tailing out of our yard.
There was a lot of commotion as the cat decided to seek refuge in a tall tree. The jays that have been around this spring began to make a lot of noise as well. They were a relatively long way off and hadn’t made a lot of racket till the cat did. Then I noticed that up above me, one of the jays was perched in the poplar tree. As I went over to the fence to get a closer look at the little bird, she started to swoop over my head and cried out.
Obviously the little chick was hers.
I continued working in the yard then watered the lawn and flowers. Later when I went back to the fence, the little bird was gone. The parents were still hanging around the tree. And again as I approached the fence, they got pretty agitated. I couldn’t see the baby bird any more. It wasn’t in the tree or on the ground as far as I could see.
Even after I came inside, I could hear the parents calling to each other in the trees. Calling to their little lost one, I suppose. I hope they were not calling in vain but the chances for a little bird against that cat are slim.