Trust Must Be Earned
Someone hit our patio window with a thump, this was in late spring, mating season and the birds were going crazy. I knew it was a bird and hoped the poor thing hadn't killed itself. I opened the glass sliding door and laying on the steps was a beautiful tree swallow. It looked like it knocked itself out, I hoped it wasn't dead as I bent down to pick it up.

I took the little ball of feathers into the bathroom and grabbed my makeup mirror and held the mirror close to the birds nostrils. I couldn't see any fog from its breath forming on the mirror. Maybe the bird was too tiny, I held my thumb against its breast and I could feel the flutter of its heart. The birds eyes were open but they didn't respond to light. I figured the poor little thing gave itself a good concussion.

Still holding the bird, I went and found a shoe box, lined it with a little towel, placed the bird inside and attached a lid. I checked the box in an hour and the birds eyes were open and it didn't move, it just stared at me. I scooped the little thing out of the box and it didn't fight or try to fly away. Its eyes were alert and tracking me, the pupils responded to light. I thought, "Good, I can let the little one go." I took the little tree swallow outside, took one last photo and held it in the palm of my hand. It righted itself, stood up, took one more look at me and flew off into the sky. I thought that was the last I would see the little one.

A tree swallow couple had built a nest in the eves of our house. The gap between the boards was so narrow I couldn't figure out how they squeezed through. But they did and proceeded to build a nest and raise a very active little family. I watched the couple come and go through the summer. They would fly around my head when I worked in the garden catching the bugs that flew up as I pulled weeds. I often wondered if one of them was the little one I rescued in early spring.

It was time for the babies to leave the nest. I worried they wouldn't be able to make it through the small entrance, they might get their head stuck in the extremely narrow area that meets the roof. I continued to weed my flower gardens.

One day one of the sparrows was acting aggressively towards me as I walked out to feed the chickens.

I kept flying at my head. I thought one of the babies had flown and landed nearby. I walked a few hundred yards up to the chicken coop and the bird followed me, flying over my head. It flew pretty low, that was odd and what was weird it kept following me wherever I went.

Maybe this is the bird I rescued and it's asking me for help? I walked over to their nest and saw a fledgling had indeed gotten its head stuck in the small crack near the roof. I went and got our ladder with the bird flowing me dive bombing my head. Put up the ladder and grabbed the frightened fledgling by its tiny head, pushing it down near the larger end of the entrance to its nest. The little thing squawked shrilly, but this time the parent that came and got me wasn't bombing my head. It was sitting on the roof watching me. I shoved the little one back in the nest and hoped it wouldn't get stuck. I checked the nest daily and within a few days the family left.

The next day I saw hundreds of tree swallows sitting on the power lines near our home. I wondered which one was my little friend. The next year and following five years the couple kept coming back to their nesting spot. I always felt so happy to see them in the spring.

All photos are taken by me on our little farm in Eugene Oregon.

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