On a Wing and A Prayer

As I was winding down after a rather busy day yesterday, the phrase "On a wing and a prayer" kept popping into my head so I looked up it's meaning.  It means "In poor condition, but just managing to get the job done."  It originated from WWII when planes were attacked and were badly damaged but could still fly.

The reason this particular phrase came to me was because a few days ago we discovered that we had a birds nest in a box in our carport.

We've been watching it for a few days and hadn't seen the mother near the nest for at least two days.  It used to be that when we would walk past the box, the baby's would open their mouths and chirp at us wanting food.  Yesterday, when we got home from a school trip we realized the birds weren't active. AT. ALL.

My daughter is all about animals.  Dolphins and birds in particular.  We've been to aquariums to see dolphins but haven't been able to see many birds up close.  So when it looked like the mother bird hadn't been to the nest in at least 2 days, and the baby birds weren't acting "normal" my daughter begged me to try to see if they were still alive.

They were all on top of each other so we took them out of the nest one by one to see if they were alive (and of course I let the kids hold them briefly).

After determining they were, she wanted to try to nurse them back to health.

I've read that there are numerous birds that are actually illegal to take care of at home so I decided it was better if we leave the job to professionals.  It was almost 5PM so I knew there was a chance we'd at least have them overnight (if they lived that long).

One of the aquariums we go to is located next to a seabird rescue organization so I called them to see what our options were.  They told me what we could try to feed them (small pieces of fruit or scrambled eggs dipped in water oddly enough) and we agreed that I'd bring them by this morning.

Yesterday, the birds were the epitome of the phrase "on a wing and a prayer."  When we first brought them inside we had to open their mouths for them (not easy let me tell you).  This was a painstaking process at first.  The kink in the neck I got from it, meant hubby and I took turns.

After doing that a couple times, they started to open their mouths again on their own when we would tap on the box. By the time I went to bed around midnight, they'd all eaten on their own (meaning they opened their mouth and I put something in their mouth).

When I woke up in the morning they were all still alive and a few of them opened their mouths for more food.  So after breakfast for the humans and birds we were off to the bird rescue hospital.

Our 5 little charges (species yet TBD).

While dropping off the birds we got to go into areas that people don't usually get to see.  We saw a macaw walking around on the floor like it owned the place.  We saw a couple others in cages as well as various other types of birds.  And we learned that volunteers there must be 18 (my daughter was bummed about that).

The other good thing that came of this is that since we were next door to the aquarium we stopped by for a little while (I had to get back for an inspection but there were also a couple field trips that had it crowded so it wasn't as long as we would have liked).

All in all, this experience was great and very eye opening for all of us.  It taught us that we can take care of more than just cats (but I will say keeping the cats away from the birds was something we had to watch).  I learned that my daughter's current priority with animals is birds and not dolphins any more.  Considering she makes and plays with paper birds constantly I suppose I shouldn't be too surprised.  Perhaps we discovered a veterinary specialty out of this... 

I also learned that my son is way more capable than I give him credit for (he actually helped feed a bird when he noticed it was begging for food and I wasn't nearby).

UPDATE: Just called and checked on the birds and they are doing fine.  Still don't know what they are though  :-)