Sadness in the Garden

On Friday afternoon, while getting the mail, Emily found a baby bird in the middle of the street. It didn't seem to have any injuries but it's eyes were closed and it didn't move. I called Phillip and he said he had seen it early that morning on his way to work, but hadn't realized it was a baby.


After looking online, I was pretty sure it was a baby male cardinal (my favorite kind of bird). Can you see the slight redness on his feathers? I didn't want him to get run over and there was a rain storm coming so...


...I put him in a basket planter in the backyard. He was quickly given the name "Jack," by Grace.


We put an umbrella over him to protect him from the storm.


Soon, Jack stood up on the edge of the basket and started chirping for his mama.


We have had a male and female cardinal in our neighborhood for a few years so I put some sunflower seeds in this feeder and right by the basket in hopes that they would find their baby.


He continued to chirp and soon his mama found him! That afternoon she came near him many times, but wouldn't feed him.


Saturday morning, I was in touch with the local wildlife bird rescue and they seemed to think that he would be fine since his mom knew where he was, but to bring him in if she hadn't fed him by the late afternoon.

By 1:00pm Jack had taken a turn for the worst. He was no longer standing up or chirping. I called bird rescue again and they said to fill a sock with rice, microwave until warm, put the bird near it, inside a box, and bring him right in.


We all got into the van and before we even pulled out of the driveway, Jack took his last breath.

We are all very sad, but especially Emily since she found him in the first place. There were lots of tears and Jack is now sleeping in our garden, beneath the Bleeding Heart and Fern.