Kathy, Kelly, Claire, and I headed out early this morning for a stop at Waffle House and to get the two girls’ passports. (Both parents have to appear at the application office.) I spotted a small bird next to the neighbor’s mailbox. It looked large enough to hop, but too small to fly. Suddenly the mother bird landed on top of the mailbox with a worm in its mouth. Kathy exclaimed, “It’s a blue bird!” We don’t see them very often, but we have seen them more near our house this year.

I proposed we catch the baby and keep it in a bird cage until he gets big enough to let go. Kathy thought it would be better to let the mother take care of it. So off we went on our trip for waffles and passports. When we returned, the girls went looking for the baby blue bird, but they could not find it.

Later in the day, Kathy spotted an exploded pile of down feathers, some with the unmistakable bright blue, next to the neighbor’s fence. It looked as if a cat (or maybe Stout?) had caught the baby bird. I then noticed a lot of the feathers on top of a fence post above the pile. I think a hawk or owl caught the baby bird blue bird, which would explain the exploded pile of feathers around and on top of the fence post.

Poor baby blue bird. May be destined to be bones on paper.