Moving places 雀母三遷

While trimming a tree on Sunday morning, my dad ended up chopping down a branch with a nest by accident. He was too immersed in his task to notice it, let alone to hear the cries from the nest shortly after, until I told him what had happened.

Dad thought the nest was empty, since the day before we spotted a dead chick on the grass directly below the tree. The keen wind and wildly dancing branches led both of us to think that the chick was quite likely tossed out of the nest by the wind and left to suffer this fate because of neglect. But we would not have expected that there was another chick, which was in fact clever enough to alert us for help.

Dad and I considered for a while how best to care for the chick. Housing it in a box was probably not the smartest thing to do, so we decided to put it back to the nest and rest the branch in the flower bed underneath a bush in order to afford some cover. But we were also concerned that the chick’s mum and dad would not be able to find it.

Animals certainly have their own ways. About an hour had passed, the chick’s mum and dad were chirping from a tree near the bush calling for their little darling. Then echoed the cries from the chick, guiding its parents on the right direction to the nest immediately to ensure that it would get fed. The parents spent the rest of the afternoon dashing in and out of this temporary residence, and they didn’t seem to mind a curious by-stander like me admiring the nimbleness with which they sneaked their way through the meshwork of branches into and out of the nest. When the chick was left home alone, it wasn’t shy to let this by-stander do what he needed to find the best angle for his photo shots. It was a good feeling to be an amateur Sir David Attenborough, even if it was only for an afternoon.

This temporary residence is hardly the safest place to settle at all. Apart from a nosy stalker, the nest was probably too easy a target for cats as it was very close to the ground and near a fence where wandering cats could climb. Little wonder then that the nest was deserted on Monday, as the birds would have most likely found a better place to stay. One ought to give credit to the intelligence of these creatures.
































星期日早上家父在後花園修樹，不知不覺間把一根築了鳥巢的樹榦剪了下來，他高高在上顧着剪枝，當然沒有察覺——要不是我告訴他，他甚至連巢內傳出吱吱響也懵然不知。

家父還以為巢已丟空了，前一天樹下的草坪上躺了一隻死了的雛鳥，那天颳大風，樹葉樹枝都在空中亂舞，我跟家父都猜想，那隻可憐的傢伙想必是從巢裡被風吹出來，跌在地上，無人理會餓死或冷死了。想不到巢內還有另一隻雛鳥，那小傢伙也挺聰明，懂得吱吱叫求救。

我和家父想了一會如何處置，把小傢伙掏出來再放進另一個廂子也不是個最好辦法，後來還是把牠放回巢內，再把整根樹榦擱在花糟上的一株矮樹下，好歹讓牠有點掩護。不過我們總有點擔心小傢伙的爸媽會不會找到牠。

但動物總有其生存之道，過了一個小時左右，父母兩鳥有那株矮樹附近的高樹吱吱叫找孩子，矮樹下也傳出小傢伙的叫聲，做父母的不消多久便找到巢的新位置，趕快餵那隻傢伙。之後那個下午，父母兩鳥都輪流進出這個臨時居所，祇見牠們身手敏捷地穿過重重樹枝鑽進巢內，一眨眼又迅速地鑽出來，似乎不介意稍遠的地方站了一個好奇地窺看着的人，父母鳥離巢後，雛鳥乖乖地躲在巢裡，也不介意我這個獵奇攝影師拿着照相機努力找合心意的拍攝角度，我幻想自己是著名的動物紀錄片主持人Sir David Attenborough，儘管祇是一個下午，感覺也不錯。

這個臨時居所，始終不是長治久安之地，除了有我這個不時窺探打擾的人外，巢離地不高，又接近籬笆，就好像擺了一籠點心，令路經的貓垂涎，所以到了星期一，那樹榦已鳥去巢空，看來那幾隻鳥已另覓新居，還把雛鳥搬了家。動物聰明的一面，的確不容少覬！