Monday, May 14, 2012

Mother's Day Tragedy at the Barbecue and a baby bunnie

     It was a beautiful Mother's Day. I had two of my children here and three of my grandchildren.  The sky was cloudless and it was warm and Mark barbecued steak and prawns. That's when tragedy struck.  We had been noticing that there were a pair of wrens hanging around the back and we thought they had a nest in the yew by the deck.  Such was not the case.  Mark got out the kettle barbecue and put the cylinder in it that he starts the coals in. He kept noticing that the wrens were hanging around and making a lot of noise trying to get his attention. He just kept on getting the barbie ready.  I was by the garden room going through some boxes of dahlias someone had given me.  I came to the back and I noticed that the wren was were making a lot of noise and flying at the ashcan on the bottom of the barbie. Then I noticed that there was small chirping in the ash can and quickly got the cylinder out of the kettle and then saw a couple of flaming sheets of newspaper under that. Thankfully I had gloves on and was able to quickly get those out.
     Now I had to figure out how to help the babies.  Bing and Lola our Pugs were circling around the barbie wondering what I'm doing and one of the babies jumped out and Lola grabbed it and started going way. She was not gentle and the baby was gone.
However, by that time Mark had come out and we were able to save the other two babies and put the barbie back where it was and watched for the mom and dad to come back to check on the babies. They did but all afternoon they looked for the dead baby and just broke our hearts watching them. They cried out for them and looked high and low.
We won't be using that barbecue until we know for sure that they are done using it.  The above picture is the infamous barbie. The two holes you see on the bottom are what they use to go in and out. The babies were so cute.
We now have four nests that we know about around the yard. Juncos, Wrens, Chickadees and sparrows.  I just love it!
Today I was weeding and watering in the friendship garden in the back and found a baby bunny. I picked it up and took it to another part of the yard where it would be able to stay away from the chickens who would find it and hurt it.
Speaking of the chickens they are all doing great. Well integrated and I let them out as much as possible.
The garden is mostly planted and doing well. That's all for today.

Many Blessings,
Kay

4 comments:

Unknown said...

OMGosh, what stories from your backyard. So glad you were able to rescue one of the babies. And a baby bunny...wow, you must have a wonderful yard!!!

Did you know you (we) have to type in those nasty squiggly words to comment?

Kay's flowers said...

Hi Karen,

No I didn't know and I didn't set this up for that. I don't like those things either. Thanks for the heads up.
I hope you have a great trip. Do you leave in just a few days?

Blessings,
Kay

Carol............. said...

Good Grief...what an incredible thing to happen. Guess from now on I'll check little crooks and crevices before I start a project.

jerilanders said...

Thank goodness you were able to save a few babies. Don't you just love all the activity going on at this time of year in the bird world?! Four nests!