I keep forgetting to post my p365 pictures on the right day. Whoops! There's just been so much going on during the day to remember to update before 12am. Please forgive me, blog of mine. XOXO.

The picture from yesterday is one of the baby Mockingbirds from the nest outside my dining room window. There were three babies and yesterday two of them took flight - this little runt stayed behind and ended up falling out of the nest earlier today. I watched it hop around the yard for a little bit, enough to see if it could fly or not, and it couldn't fly so I decided it would be best to pick it up and put it back in the nest. Birds won't really neglect their babies if someone touches them - that's a proven myth. But, anyway, the little bird wanted to be difficult and jumped back out of the nest. We have two hunting dogs who would eat that little thing up in a heartbeat so I followed it around until it hopped out of the yard through a hole in the fence. The entire time the parent Mockingbirds were circling over us, squawking like crazy, and trying to dive-bomb attack me. Those bitches are INTIMIDATING! I was worrying pretty bad about the little bird because I know it probably won't survive if it's not ready to fly yet. It will most likely either a) hop back into our yard and be eaten by our dogs, b) hop into a neighbor's yard and get eaten by one of their dogs, or c) hop into the road and get run over. Or get picked up by a bigger bird... who knows? But, you know how the whole 'out of sight, out of mind' thing goes. So once it was out of sight, it was out of mind. Until I heard a noise outside of our front door. I looked out and there was the little Mockingbird with the parents circling overhead. I opened the door to try to see if I could catch it and try to put it back into the nest once more but it took off hopping and the parents started trying to attack me once again, so I took off running because those things have sharp beaks and talons. Screw that! I know it's just a little bird and baby birds don't make it all the time... but I feel really terrible knowing that this innocent little baby most likely won't survive. Poor thing. :( Hopefully I'll quit feeling like crap about it soon. And my dogs do NOT want me to catch them eating the little guy because I will be pissed beyond belief.

I thought it was cool having a nest right outside my window because I could see everything. I saw them from egg to flight, I saw how the parent birds feed them, how they have to work harder than humans to keep their babies alive. It was like having Animal Planet in my backyard! But it is way, way too stressful to have a nest of babies in your backyard when you have a Basset Hound and a Labrador Retriever. I think I'll have my step-dad take down the nest sometime tomorrow so they don't return to it. Out of sight, out of mind.

Project 365, day 016.


Project 365, day 015.