I am totally exhausted trying to assist a cardinal pair in launching a nest
of babies in a bush right outside my window facing my computer desk.  I've
adopted this bunch after a big snake robbed the nest and ate all 4 of the
babies who were happily living in a hanging planter on my front porch.  So
getting at least one baby from this second nest to survive has become an
obsession.  Squirrels stole two of their eggs, until I sabotaged their
access by wrapping the bottom of the bush half way up with tin foil.  Then
one fell out when I wasn't looking and my horrible, preditory cat ate it. So
I have a sprinkler set on low to run all the time to keep the cat away from
the bush.  I have an upsidedown umbrella under the nest and several times a
day I go out to fish the remaining baby out of the umbrella and put it back
in the nest.  The parents don't seem to mind my help .  They (the Dad is a
very "involved parent") spend all day scolding the cat, other birds and
ferrying bites of bugs or whatever it is they eat back to the baby -- who is
currently so ugly that only a mother could love him.  The whole affair
reminds me how very precarious is new life, how demanding a job is
parenting, and how a little help can't hurt.  As I get ready to board a
plane to go to Oklahoma City today to lecture, and the sky fills with storm
clouds, I can't help but hope that these birds also are granted just a
little bit of luck.


Barbara Wilson-Clay, BS, IBCLC
Austin Lactation Associates
LactNews Press
www.lactnews.com

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