Fledge the Baby Swallow

Frequent Photo

The long black stretch of Sleek the cat pointed like an arrow towards him when we got home yesterday. Every muscle in her indicated his presence—a tiny swallow fledgling perched atop a trellis in my jasmines. Sleek licked her chops, beginning the climb towards a delicious feast. If I truly worshiped at the foot of Darwin, I would have ignored the duo and unloaded the car but I couldn’t help rescuing the poor flightless fellow and putting him out of her reach.

My son covered him in a washcloth and we left him for his parents’ to feed…hopefully.  This morning, jaunty and cheerful, he greeted me with a wide open beak.  His strength showed his parents’ had found and fed him. My son kept leaving pill bugs around his feet but I’m not sure these met his menu needs.

This afternoon I went outside to find the perch we had left him on empty.  But I soon found him hopping up on a board.  I scooped him up intending to put him back up high but with a whoosh he flew out of my hands.  At first, he stayed low but swiftly he swept up into the air.  Like a Disney movie, a small group of swallows swirled around him, chirping in joyous greeting. Then they all flew out of sight.

Nature can be brutal but, unexpectedly, she sometimes treats a reverent viewer to magic.