Tales from the Avian Maternity!

Having suffered the indignity of water dripping from my neighbour’s flower pots above me (among other things), I decided to live upstairs when I moved houses. I was prepared for the usual possibilities – leaking roof, limited space for keeping a gas cylinder on the kitchen balcony etc – but not for the incidents that led to writing this story. Apparently birds, in seeking a place to have their young, favour storey building windows; at least they seem to love mine because within a few months I had 4 different bird families in 3 different windows! Regrettably one of them laid her eggs on a much used window; let’s just say it didn’t end well. Anyway, the other 3 cases recorded good success including a single dove and 2 sets of birds I cannot identify. It is these unidentifiable 2 I’m now telling you about.
Let me start from the beginning: The birds whose species I don’t know, used the same maternity ward – my bathroom window – which is perhaps why I became sort of attached to them. I recall the very first day a bird started bringing bits of grass and constructing a nest. Soon enough there were eggs which she sat on and hatched. It was interesting to observe them at close range every morning and when I was getting set for the day, I would be careful not to somehow splash water on them or make too much noise so as not to disturb their sleep whenever I noticed they were still snoozing. Watching them grow was fascinating as they developed from one stage to the other up until the day after I returned from a trip with my family and met an empty nest. I smiled wistfully and wished them well in life.
Even more fascinating was the second batch. I was having a bath one morning when I saw 2 birds enter the abandoned nest, obviously inspecting it and discussing its suitability! Maybe my imagination is too colourful, but I could almost hear them speaking to each other and you could tell the moment they decided the nest met their requirements and flew off almost synchronized. I quickly entered the room to animatedly tell my wife that we had new occupants of the avian ante-natal hospital we were hosting. She lifted her groggy head from the pillow, shook it sadly and put it back down. You can’t blame her; it was too early in the day for my tomfoolery. But I didn’t get that Memo. Heheheh.
This time I followed their progress more closely, looking in daily from when they were hatched – blind and hairless - to their coming of age. Still I was deeply impacted the day I entered the bathroom and heard unusual, excited bird noises from my window sill. I moved in for a closer look and was utterly captivated! To my sheer delight, I saw the two parents at the mouth of the nest urging the young ones to step out and see the world. The only difference between the young and their parents was that they looked shinier and were the hesitant but excited ones taking steps in and out of the nest! It was amazing I tell you. And finally they crowded back into their nest and continued discussing the days’ events noisily.
When I woke up the next morning they were all gone.
Even now as I write this weeks later, I still feel like crying cos I miss them. And as I reflected on the whole thing – their development, the sense of responsibility shown by the parents in raising and caring for them and that final orientation session as well as the resplendent beauty of those young birds heading out to start their lives away from the familiarity and comfort of home, one verse of scripture became more real to me than ever before and I worshipped God. The verse? Psalms 14:1.
The fool says in his heart “there is no God”.