Tammie Rogers
Inspired by Dogs & Nature
A Dead Thing With Two Birds
Two days ago, when I checked the Bluebird nest box at the east gate to Jaye’s pasture, I discovered something I did not expect!
It was a little mouse…and a bunch of his turds. I tried to encourage him to exit, but he retreated upwards where the pivoting front door prohibited me from any further ushering. I figured he would exit that evening when he felt more safe in the cloak of darkness.
I’m interested in that specific box because there has been a Bluebird couple hanging around that area – including the male singing from the top and the female entering it – since the day after we put up the box.
I joked that Wifie Bluebird was not going to make a nest in that box if Hubby Bluebird didn’t take care of the mouse, and the mess he made. So, when I opened the box yesterday to find the mouse gone and no signs of his poop, I knew I would have to ask Robert if he did a little tidying up to encourage the birds to move it.
I closed the door and did a cursory scan of the environment before I pressed the pedal to continue on my way. I’ve found that a bird which may have flown off when I arrived into an area might just flit back. If I look around before I move, I might catch something special. As my examination moved further and further away I saw something that wasn’t normal. Off in the distance, a good 300 feet away, I saw something brown just topping the height of the pasture grasses and clover. It seemed static, but then, something moved. Two things moved. Two vertical things moved that seemed to be standing on the brown mass. Something had died and there were two birds picking at it. That was my best guess for the little bit of information I was able to glean. If you look about dead center of this photo, you will see the brown thing. That’s all I saw from my position.
I picked up my camera and got a few shots before it moved. The dead thing moved! The birds that were eating it didn’t fly off. This was strange. Obviously, this dead thing with two birds wasn’t that which I had supposed. I took a few more photos as it slowly traveled through the tall grass, then it hopped away towards the west. I put down my camera. That was a dog. No need to continue to track it.
I do not take my dogs out with me when I am looking to catch a glimpse of some beautiful gem in nature. I love my dogs, but they will scare up everything in their path. So, they stay home. But, I knew the brown thing was a dog and I figured out which dog it was. Just before I left to go on the drive-about, I had petted Bree. She is a dog we trained and placed as a Service dog for a local disabled man. When he was no longer able to care for her, we took her back and retired her. Bree is old – like fifteen years old! Robert takes her outside when he works on a project and she wanders around. I never knew she roamed all the way out to Jaye’s pasture, but she is exactly the color of that mass with the two birds. Mystery solved. Or was it? When I got back to my computer and plugged in the SD card I was surprised to discover I had been filming a White-tailed fawn.
I wished I had followed it on its journey just to see where it might have gone, and mostly because I may have caught another good shot.
Just to recap, I did ask Robert if he had assisted that mouse to leave the box, but more so, had he cleaned out the turds? He responded that he had not. So, whether the Hubby Bluebird actually removed the poop to help his wife decide on renting the box for the season, or some little fairies cleaned house over night, I will never know. But I remain hopeful that these birds make a decision before it gets too late to raise a brood.
I have never seen a mouse get into a bird box like that before. Very interesting. The photos of the fawn were wonderful – I have never been able to capture a fawn in my camera lens. Lovely post.