Swallow

Cute little bird that consumed our afternoon.  I saw something fluttering in the water and we've had all kinds of things in the lake, including a snake, so we ran down to see what it was and it was this poor little bird.  I told Ainsley to jump in and get it and she swept it up and it became her friend.  We let it recover and dry off and took it to what we thought was its nest, but it didn't take long for it to end up in the water again.  The kids were infatuated and were bringing it ants and bugs and it ate every one very quickly.  Khalif was a very good ant catcher.  It seemed to gain its strength back and took flight, but it wasn't flying right and it became clear there was a problem.  So....what do you do?  Keep this bird or let it be and watch it die to the hands of the cat, Maui.  Liha was on it, looking up places we could take the bird and after talking with them, she thought it had a neurological problem.  After a bunch of back and forth we decided it would be better for the bird to be with people who could help it, so we drove to Arlington and gave it to the bird sanctuary.  I should've followed up, but didn't really want to hear bad news, especially since Ainsley was so attached to this bird, so we will assume it recovered and is living a healthy life!  Quite the adventure :)

 She didn't seem to mind all the poop

 Turns out the sanctuary has a lot of birds with neurological problems, most from falling out of the nest or getting hit by a car.  It was a very cool place! 
This guy clearly had issues.

Beautiful owl

Aunt Pam was up visiting while all this chaos was going on and I'm sure the elders thought we were nuts!  They were toasting to mom who officially RETIRED!!!   YAY!!!