Baby Chicks

I was lucky enough this weekend to have Tornado spend a night. He is always welcome and always exhausting. Generally, Tornado only comes over with his big brother Hurricane, but Hurricane had a previously planned sleep over at a buddies place, and as we all know, “Bros before Grandparents!” It was really nice to have the one on one for a change.

We picked Tornado up and on the way home we stopped off at the WORLDS BEST PLAYGROUND, well the best one that is close to us anyways. When we got home he helped make the pizza for supper and we made short work of it. We spent some of the in between times looking at the world from the front window.

In the past few years I have put up a few bird houses so that we could watch birds flit to and fro with nest making supplies and I suppose food. I don’t particularly like birds that much, they are dirty little dinosaur descendants that would just as soon peck your eyes out than look at you. They are hard workers though and they nicely fill in the time that it takes to cook a pizza.

Today, I was on my own looking out the window making sure that the world was still turning. It was! You can imagine my shock when I saw a Magpie land on the perch outside of a bird house and pluck out a newly hatched baby sparrow. He tossed it on the ground and then proceeded to eat it. It turns out that they aren’t so much bird houses as they are Magpie feeders. Life is a bitch sometimes.

I couldn’t help but think that there is just a very thin layer of civilization keeping out the magpies of the world. We are so comfortable in our lives and rarely give thought to just how very lucky we are. This past week there has been a large wild fire in northern Alberta and the town of Fort McMurray had to be evacuated. Up to eighty thousand souls have been moved south to safer lodgings for the time being. Some of those have nothing left to go back to and will somehow have to start their lives all over again. They are the baby chicks, but thankfully we live in a country that feels a responsibility to look after its citizens. There has been a huge outpouring of assistance from all levels of government, charitable organizations and fellow citizens that are giving to those that have nothing for the moment.

The magpies of the world will just have to go hungry for now.