Save the Birds

I have this thing for saving baby animals. 

In the past I have saved baby starlings, and I also made an attempt to save baby squirrels that fell from our backyard trees in a big storm. 

Today it was baby quail. 

I was on my way home from visiting teaching, when we saw a family of quail walking across the road. It was a mommy and a daddy, and somewhere around 20 tiny little babies. I pulled the car to the side of the road and we (me and the kids) watched the babies try to jump up the curb, to meet up with their mom and dad on the hill above. 

We watched for about 20 minutes. About half of the babies made it up the curb -- no problem. And then it just got sad. We could hear the mom and dad calling for the other babies, and the babies were running back and forth under the curb -- chirping and trying to find their way, but they couldn't. 

We kept watching. 

And then the babies started freaking-out, and scattering all around the road. Some ventured off on their own. I could see remnants of previously squished baby quail on the road. We watched as the cars would go past and just barely miss the poor babies. 

After I let nature run its course, I decided I needed to help. The mom and dad stopped chirping for the babies, and the babies were playing dodge the cars. 

So, I got out of the car, and I used my visiting teaching message to help me scoop up the babies. I tried to put them on higher ground, towards their parents, or at least away from the cars. It took about 20 minutes since they all scattered, ran away, and then a few of them hid under our car, and it was hard to get them out. 

Eventually I got them all up on the grass and away from road. But there was no sign of the parents. I am not sure if quail have some sort of weeding-out process -- or "survival of the fittest" to see which babies are strong enough to make it, but that is what it looked like. I am sure I upset the balance of nature by trying to save them. :-) 

I don't know if I helped save any of them, or helped them get to their parents. But I just could not leave them there as road kill. It was just too sad 

I did the best I could, I guess. 

And my kids had a good show watching mom running in the middle of the road rescuing the birdies. :-)