Two Birds

...with one ball and a dog. For those of you who are a little more tender in nature you will not want to read this post - and don't look at the pictures (or at least the third one...)

We don't live in a particularly fun area, and after the massive amount of rain we have had much of the ground is somewhat swampy. So the discovery of a field a little higher than everything else across the highway we live on has been a joy. It's a good walk for the girls and Autumn each morning. Once we get there I throw the ball for Autumn and the girls run around and a good time is had by all. Early in our discovery of this field we noticed a bird. It was pretty attached to the field and quite vocal and theatrical, often putting on a display of being wounded, but then again not. After the first day I assumed that it probably had a nest somewhere in the area and that was why it wasn't leaving. It wasn't until our second day in this spot, and after a couple throws of the ball, that I decided to investigate that idea a little further. Sure enough in the middle of this field was a nest - four eggs scattered, two broken. Yeah I had thrown the ball right through it followed by the tromping of a 75 pound lab intent on a green ball and nothing else. Upset would be the mild way of putting how I felt. I didn't have the heart to stay there anymore. I throw the ball for Autumn a couple more times but long before she was ready to leave I had her back on her leash walking away. As we left I saw the bird picking up a broken egg, carrying it off and dropping it. By the time I got back there with my camera (of course I had to take pictures) one egg had been corralled back into the nest with the other on it's way. After a little exploration I found one of the broken eggs. When we went back that evening both of the good eggs were back in the nest and the bird was back to guarding it. Emmuska was very good at telling me where to throw to make sure that we didn't hit the nest again. I don't think she understood everything that happened as she said things like 'The mommy bird won't want to fix the eggs again' but she did understand that we had to be careful to stay away from the nest. When I was showing Mycal pictures of the nest and eggs Emmuska was asking to look too. When I came upon the ones of the broken egg I said something like 'you don't want to see those they'll break your tender little heart' to which Emmuska piped up that she wanted to see the pictures 'they wouldn't break (her) tender little heart'. I still didn't show her the pictures.