Circle of life

This is a small, pretty little bird known as the Cedar Waxwing. This is what it looks like when daintily perched on the branch of a berry bush from which it happily feeds.

Or perhaps here resting in one of the trees on the edge of a serene wood.

This is what it looks like after the worse end of a window vs. bird incident.

THWUNG! THWUNG!

“What on earth was that?” I asked, moving toward the front door. Perhaps UPS is getting cavalier with the way they deposit our packages, I thought.

“Mom, look! There’s bird poo on the window!”

“That was the sound of bird poo? That must have been a lot of poo.” Sure enough, a splat across the front window. “Gross! Was the bird flying sideways? How did it manage to do that?”

“MOM! LOOK! There are two birds are on the ground in front of the house!” exclaimed BMoC. The mixture of horror and fascination was palpable. Here was fresh kill, literally right on his doorstep.

“Wha… OMG. OK, stay here. No, you can’t go outside and check them out. I’ll go and see how they are doing. Yes, I’ll call for back up if needed.”

After not so close inspection, I pronounced our winged friends DOA.

Crap, I thought. Now comes the time when I need to explain why I can’t fix the birds. Why sometimes no amount of tape will do the trick. Why I’m not going to take the feathered ones to a special bird hospital. Why I’m not going to even consider putting stickers on our windows like the ones at Grandma’s house, I don’t care how cute they are. I even thought that maybe more theological ponderings about bird heaven were about to be explored. And fair enough: all this is just part of the mom-job—navigating the sensitive topic of the circle of life.

But as I collected the bird remains, moving them to an eternal resting spot that was not our front walkway, I was caught off guard by the actual exchange between Brothers M.

“Hey Mom, why don’t you just leave them for our cat to eat?”

“Good idea, Bro. I’ll bet they are better than cat food.”

Sometimes boys are the easier—if not grodier—sex.

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Oh, and BTW, the window splat was nothing more than berries that didn't fair well upon impact. I'm pretty sure our feathered friends broke their necks and were gone instantly. :(