Bird Mama Fever

I've had glorious and wonder filled occasions that took me into the soul and rhythm of nature as a spectator with a front row seat right in my backyard.  I watched a mother bird build and nest her eggs over a period of time.  Perhaps  my maternal instinct is so elevated this month - with the sun traveling in the mothering sign of Cancer –but I am rather troubled that I no longer see her nesting her eggs.   And I certainly can’t seem to shake this feeling as I bring it up over and over in conversations with my son.  She is nowhere to be found.

I and a friend who is an occasional overnight  guest at my home would sit on the back deck in the cool early hours of the morning simply..... bird watching.  We would watch her sit quietly and calmly on her eggs.  It was a sight to behold. No movement or noise from the chaos of urban living around her would disturb her mothering meditation moments which created a similar space for me. There would be fleeting times when she flew away from her nest, usually not far. Other times, I observed her landing on the ground or a nearby tree.  Mother bird would return not long after.  It’s been about a week now and I haven't seen her. I am now concerned about her and her unborn babies. Where are they? How are they? Did they make it through the incubation stage? Did the chaos of metropolitan vibes ruin her rhytm? I saw no traces of egg shells on the ground. The nest still sits there on my garage.  And I dare not try to climb up to peek in and see.

I was looking forward to hearing the cry of her new born baby birds and observing them leave their nest but now I don’t believe I’ll ever get to see and experience those beautiful moments  since I no longer see Mama bird.  I read that some birds take weeks to leave the nest while others take days. I am not sure what kind of bird she is or was. She was, however, blue with some orange on her breast and neck, a rather small bird in size. I am sure she is a one of the various species of birds that navigate through Washington, DC and in my back yard.

Besides the creative essence of birds, one of the behaviors I observed in the bird culture while mama bird nested her eggs was the spirit team play. One day I saw her leave her nest and another bird immediately came after her peeking in the nest.   I learned that it must have been the father bird.  Could that be true? He quickly checked in on the eggs and made room for mama bird to come back and sit. I was impressed. And I thought, we humans can learn a whole lot from animals.

Whatever happened to the mother bird and her eggs, still remains a mystery.  My heart goes out to her, as the mother in me honors the mother in her.