Another Day....

Newman is at it again!

On Sunday I planted a boston fern in a new hanging planter. I got out the ladder so that I could hang it high from a branch of a tree in the backyard. It just so happens that the only place to hang this was right next to a bird house that has baby birds in it. 

Now the baby birds that are in it are baby English House Sparrows. If you do a little research on these birds on the internet you quickly find out that they are called rats with wings. They kill other birds. Kill other birds babies and destroy their nests and eggs. They are really not nice birds.

I didn't know anything about this till my neighbor discovered they have been eating the mortar between the bricks on our houses. They have caused a few of my bricks to fall! It is that bad.

But anyway...I had hung this birdhouse because my sister had made it for me. And now there are baby sparrows in there and I really don't know what to do about it. My neighbor is very upset with me for hanging a birdhouse. But even he said he wasn't a baby bird killer. 

But Newman had a plan...

I noticed Newman was watching me intently while I put up the fern. He asks me repeatedly to pick him up so he can look into the birdhouse. This has been going on for weeks. This because he is fascinated by the chirping birds and jumps wildly up in the air thinking he can reach them. Of course he can't...I didn't think.

Newman watching...

I go in the house to get something and come out to this...

Actually, he was on the second rung of the ladder when I caught him. He was trying to climb the ladder to get at those birds!

This is not his first encounter with baby birds. 

Last Spring I found a baby house sparrow lying on my porch. (this was before I knew they were rats with wings) It was getting cold out...and I was afraid it would freeze. So I scooped it up and made a little nest with toilet paper in a tupperware box. I then put that box inside another cardboard box.

I got on the internet and it said if I could keep the baby bird alive during the night and then place it outside in the morning...the parents would come retrieve it.

So I put it on the kitchen counter and as the internet said to do - mixed some dry dog food with water until it was mushy. After the bird rested about an hour...it woke and I fed it using tweezers to put the dog  food in his mouth. I then put a lamp on over it to keep it warm.

I was feeling all warm and fuzzy that I was saving a bird baby. Newman was very interested in the whole process and followed me around the whole time.

We then went to bed. As soon as we got in bed the little bird started chirping. Newman jumped out of bed to go look. We both went into the kitchen.

I looked in the box on the counter...

no bird...

I looked around the counter....

no bird...

I looked down just in time to see Newman go gulp and swallow the bird whole. A little drop of blood the only thing remaining of the bird on the kitchen floor.

Newman had a sick look on his face.

He didn't expect it to still be alive when it hit his stomach. 

I turned off the light and we went back to bed.

It's a Dog Eat Bird World out there.

So ever since that experience...Newman has been obsessed with bird hunting...hence the reason he decided to climb the ladder. 

Newman 

The dog that ate the canary...um...sparrow.