We have had a wonderful experience over the last couple of weeks.  Sadly, a fledgling robin was removed from it's mother's watchful eye and care.  But happily, a surrogate (or two) stepped up to take care of the orphan.  With a mixture of fear and awe and hesitancy, we took on the task of care and feeding of a feathered friend.  Oh, we had many people tell us all the dangers etc., but we decided that we were committed to take this critter under our wing, so to speak.  Do you think "it" looks happy?

 In this photo, my daughter is working on a jigsaw puzzle while "Fuzzball-beep-Gretyl-Sherwood" is sitting on her head.  (We couldn't decide on a name, but for the most part I've just been calling it Angel."

After researching Turdus Migratorius, we found out that they can eat up to 70 earthworms a day.  Their parent birdies feed them about every 20 minutes while they are fledging.  So where did we get that many earthworms?  In our garden and under the compost pile, of course!

We called our local wildlife rehab organization but they don't take birds who aren't injured or sick.  The advice is of course, put it back where you found it.  But this little guy (or gal, not sure yet) was moved several t imes by some curious children (not mine) and the parents didn't come back to it after a day or so.  We decided to take matters into our own hands, like I said, with much fear and trepidation.

My youngest daughter has become it's surrogate mom.  She has spent HOURS cutting up earthworms for this lovely bird.  The bird adores her.  It has slept in our greenhouse several nights, and is now sleeping just like a birdie, outside in our neighbor's cherry tree.  We have enjoyed watching it fending for itself, although we have been supplementing it with meal worms and turning over rocks in the yard for it. 

The kids have even weighed it several times; so far it's holding out at about 2 ounces!

One of our neighbors had a surprise when he was out in his yard working and the dear little thing flew over and landed on his shoulder.  Has it lost it's fear of humans?  Yes, but I think there are many lessons in all of this. 

Finding Joy in God's Creation

Perseverance (it takes a lot of digging to feed hungry baby birds)

Trust (in your ability to know what to do)

Faith (that the Lord will help you, and that after the bird learns his independence he will remember you and  come back and visit...)

Those are just a few that came to mind.   Has this been a homeschool lesson?  You bet!  But not just a lesson in ornithology.  This has been a life lesson that has been such a blessing to us.  We know we probably won't have another experience like this one.  God uses little animals and birds to teach us so much about His love for us!

Isn't this the cutest thing you ever laid eyes on?

Blessings,

Nancy