Brushy Mountain Mama

The Brown Headed Cowbird - a perfect example of a bad parent! I can understand not being able to raise a child and hoping to give him/her a better life, but the deceitfulness of the cowbird goes way beyond giving their baby up for adoption. The female only lays one egg at a time. She and her mate go looking for a bird nest that already has eggs in it. They usually choose nests of smaller birds(nuthatches,chickadees, bluebirds) so that Cowbird Jr is assured to get fed well, as they hatch earlier and are much bigger and demanding. They remove one of the eggs and the female Cowbird lays her egg in the nest. Sometimes they will eat the host bird's egg or just drop it on the ground. Then they fly away to do this all over again, 11-20 times in a season! As I watch the Brown Headed Cowbirds from my deck, I wonder why God created them this way. Why don't they just build their own nests and raise their young? I would say they must be the laziest birds I've ever heard of. Maybe God

! I've always loved animals! I grew up in Southern New Jersey, so the wild ones were limited. I did manage to "rescue" a baby opossum, a beautiful cinnamon colored pigeon(appropriately dubbed "Cinnamon"). There were turtles(we kept one for 25+ years), an alligator found at the lake down the road.(YES, an alligator found in NJ) and a hodge podge of others that came and went. I can't imagine what could have happened in the neighborhood had my brother not "rescued" Allie. I suppose he technically rescued the neighborhood children and small pets! I stayed in good 'ole' NJ for many years, marrying and raising my 4 boys. Then those boys started moving away! The last one is moving out of NJ this weekend! My husband and I settled in the Poconos of PA, thinking we would retire there. The picture of the fawn was taken at one of our community lakes. My friend and I were canoeing when we came across him/her. I almost got talked into another "r