The Great Scissor-Tail Caper

by Alesha

Earlier this summer, we were excited to have a pair of Scissor Tails, (Scissor Tailed Flycatchers) make a nest in the tree that our clothesline is hung from! I was glad to see that she had hatched some, though they were too high up in the tree to see how many were in the clutch. I had hoped to watch the activity some, but wasn't expecting the adventure we were in for... One night we had a West Texas style rain storm - the wind blowing the rain almost sideways. The next morning, I saw the Mama Scissortail sitting on the ground under the clothesline. I had never seen her land on the ground like that, so I went over to see what she was up to. To make a short story long, she was fine, but the wind had blown her babies down nest and all. So, there she stood, looking at her babies with a look that could not be interepereted as anything but, "now what?". Of the five chicks scattered about her, three were still living. (Now, I know that you are not supposed to touch wild baby birds so as to not leave your scent on them, but I figured that if I left them on the ground, they would be dog food - as our yard is patrolled by the great and mighty "Pete", our Golden Retriever puppy. ) I picked up the nest and stuck it up in a crotch of the tree about shoulder high to me and tried to make it as secure as I knew how, though it was not nearly as well secured as the birds had done it, and tucked the three living chicks back in. The Mama gladly took them back, though she kept fussing over the dead ones; I felt sorry for her and took them out farther into the pasture so she could spend her energies on her living ones. Over the next week, I had a delightful time watching them until they flew. On a couple of occasions I had to put one back in my not-so-secure nest. By the end, two fledgelings sat on top of their old nest, which had by then folded over like a taco and the little runt chick had been "kicked out" to the next branch over...which wasn't really any worse of a spot than the falling apart nest. The adult birds got pretty used to me. The Mama never quite trusted me, but she seemed to realize I had my own usefulness to her. If her runt baby had gotted kicked down, (which happened at least every other day), she would fly to a nearby tree and watch me as I put him back in, but she never called her "husband" down on me like she did if any other bird dared land in "their" tree. (Besides coming in on occasion to sit with the female in the top of their favorite "sitting tree", the Papa didn't tend babies, but he always stayed close in the area to hunt and at one chirp from the Mama, he would swoop in for battle.) So... this whole letter is to say that I had a very fun week being a part of their family! These pics were taken the last couple of days before they took off. We still see them occasionally - their tails aren't quite full lenght yet, so I can still tell them from the adults. Our God is so wonderful in all that He has created. :)