Yes Shelley, I had a wildlife moment!

Shelley at Building A Log Cabin asked if we have ever witnessed a rare moment with wildlife. In her case, it was watching the Loons at her lakeside log cabin do an annual water dance.

Yes, I had a moment like this. One year a mother bird built her nest inside our stove exhaust vent. I think she was from unpopular Starlings species but I didn't have the heart to disturb them and decided to let them stay. However, as the little ones grew we started noticing little mites in our exhaust. Yuck. I couldn't bring myself to destroy life so I had my husband call a wildlife refuge and ask for advice. They gave us some wonderful advice and it worked.

We took an empty half gallon plastic milk container and cut out the side and nailed it under the eaves of the back of the house. Then my dh carefully took out the nest with the babies and inserted it into the milk carton. We waited to see what the mother would do. Would she find them just a few feet from the vent? Would she reject them?

It took her about an hour to find the nest and settle in. I gave a big sigh of relief but then I became worried about the west sun beating on the plastic container. So I had my dh install one of our old bamboo shades that I could lower in the afternoon. It worked. I would walk out and raise and lower the shade depending on the sun's intensity. One day I was out in the yard and I noticed that the mother was sitting in a tree "yelling" in my direction. I looked over and realized that the shade was too low and she couldn't land without some maneuvering. Obviously, she felt it should be corrected and was telling me in no uncertain terms. I adjusted the shade and she went about feeding her babies.

All of this qualifies as a moment with wildlife but it was not the best of the moments I experienced that summer. One day, when I was outside working in the yard, I noticed that she was perched on the house roof behind our house. She had a huge worm dangling from her mouth and she was tweeting loudly. All of a sudden one of the babies stumbled out of the makeshift nesting place and flew to his mothers side to receive his or her reward. The rest of the day she coaxed each of her babies to fly for the first time. All except the last baby who refused to budge from the safety of the nest. Finally at evening time, she relented and brought him or her a worm. The next morning, the same process began again, and the little one again refused. I kept checking the nest during the day because I wondered how long the mother would wait before shoving the last fledgling from the nest. Again at evening time, the mother bird relented and fed her baby in the nest.

The third morning, I was again working in the yard and watched the patient mother start the process again. She had the worm dangling and she tweeted instructions, and I'm sure encouragement. And wonder of wonders, the little one finally summoned the courage to step to the edge of the nest and fly to his mother's side.

It was such a glorious feeling to know that I had helped that mother raise her babies successfully and that I got to watch the wonder of a mother's love and patience up close and personal. We covered all of our vents with mesh and have never had a return visit but it was awesome to watch nature up close.

It was a moment to remember!