The early bird gets ... me!

'Tis the season for baby birds to start hatching and learning to fly. We have a nest in our garage. It has 2 little babies in it. I haven't told my boys that it's there because I know what will happen. Either they knock the nest down and the birds get hurt, or worse, I will find the babies in their room one day with my 5 year old trying to feed it something that he's already chewed up! So I'm keeping my secret. This past weekend I took Declan over to his friend's house. They have a bird's nest right above the front doorway. It is filled with baby birds. While we were looking up at them, the babysitter opened the door to let my son in. As I started to go inside, a bird flew down and hit me in the head! As first I thought it gave me a present, so naturally I yelled obscenities. But then as I realized I was still clean, it flew in the house! Have you ever tried to catch a bird? I was chasing it with a sneaker and flip flop. My idea was to scoop it up in the shoe, cover it with the flip flop and gently release it back outside. No, I wasn't drinking. Why do you ask? Of course, at the front door every relative of this baby bird within miles was flying all around the front door and chirping very loudly. It was like a scene from the Hitchcock movie. There was no way we were opening the door even if we could catch it. We managed to corner it in a bathroom and shut the door. Fortunately the babysitter lives across the street and she was able to have her dad come over and he got the bird out of the house. disclaimer: no animals were hurt in the typing of this post.