Nature and It's Dramas.

There I was, sitting at the side of my shed this morning (because the side of my shed offers the best prospect of sunshine and the least disturbance from the cold east wind), musing on life, the universe and everything as is frequently my wont, when something interesting happened.

I think I’d just got to the point of wondering whether the fact that I’ve never even seen a bowl of petunias, much less owned one, had any bearing on my ignorance of probability theory, when I heard the sound of a momentous disturbance a little to my right. Much loud and agitated screeching, to be precise.

I looked around to see a male blackbird running at speed along the path pursued by another male blackbird and a female one. I assumed it was the latter two who were responsible for the noise, and further assumed that they were a breeding pair. And hopping along in the middle of this melee was a baby blackbird which was opening and closing its beak aggressively at the one being pursued. Whether it was actually contributing audibly, or whether it was just trying to look the part, was impossible to tell.

The bird at the head of the pursuit turned the corner of my house and ran out of sight, at which point the two pursuers stopped the screeching, rose into the air, and then flew away in the opposite direction. Why they did that I have no idea, and what the hell it was all about anyway I also have no idea, but the little fledgling was left all alone and looking bemused. So was I for that matter, but that isn’t the point. The point is that the little fella clearly shouldn’t have been out of the nest because its wings weren’t fully grown and it couldn’t fly. It could hop well enough, but that was all.

And so I wondered whether I should intervene and considered what form such intervention should take. I remembered the advice I’d heard years ago: if you see a fledgling prematurely out of the nest, don’t intervene. Leave it alone and the parents will find it and carry on feeding it.

Well, it’s not that easy, is it? You want to help the little guy, don’t you? Of course you do; it’s human nature. But expert opinion is expert opinion, and so I left it alone. A few minutes later it hopped around the corner of the house and disappeared into the undergrowth.

But then you start wondering. What of the cold night which was clearly in the offing? Would it survive outside a nest where it has the parents’ warmth to keep it comfortable? And what of the rat which lives at the bottom of the garden? Rats are not known for their compassionate natures or their habit of showing kindness to baby birds. Fortunately, I saw a female blackbird hopping around in the vicinity a little while later, apparently looking for something. And so I hoped for the best.

And that’s why I wish nature wouldn’t produce such dramas. It makes life difficult for people like me.