A short while back a woman called me to come and take some birds away from her house.
When I arrived at her place I discovered four baby Welcome Swallows laying on the ground in a smashed mud nest.
The adult swallows (which were flitting around nervously watching us) had built their nest in under the verandah of these people’s double-story house. The woman had complained to her husband that the nest was “ugly” and wanted it gone, but he had told her to be patient and that he’d get it down after he was sure the swallows had stopped using it. Several weeks passed and then one day the woman decided she’d had enough, turned on her garden hose and sprayed it down.
When it came down, that was when she discovered the babies inside.
The downside was these little guys only needed a few more days before they would have flown from the nest… but the upside was, even though it had been a long fall, they were all unharmed.
At this point of our conversation the woman’s 2 children (about 8 and 6 years of age) came out to investigate what was going on.
I mentioned that I could tie a makeshift nest (ice cream bucket) on the verandah and let the sparrow parents look after the babies, as within a few days they would be flying anyway…
When the son (8 years of age) informed me that he “hated the birds” because they were “ugly” and he didn’t want them there.
Ok…
It was at that point I realised the deep impact we have on our children with our attitudes…
I took the birds home for about four days, got them flying and eating well, then returned them to the front garden of the woman’s house. The Welcome Swallows lived up to their name and ‘welcomed’ their babies back, and within twenty minutes they were all up on the neighbour’s roof.
Happy ending – you betcha! But the whole incident really does make one ponder…
When we dump that dirty tin in the garbage bin because we’re too lazy to rinse it out and add it to the recycle bin…
When we stand under the shower for twenty minutes at a time…
When we pour chemical-filled cleaning products down our drains…
When we drive around the corner to the video store when we could have easily walked or ridden our bikes…
When we leave the television or air conditioner running while we go out…
When we spray weed killer along the driveway rather than take the ten or so minutes to pull the weeds out…
When we complain about the noise the Rainbow Lorikeets make early in the morning as they work their way through the flowers…
… what are we teaching our children? That the future doesn’t matter? Their future isn’t important enough to be more careful? That we can be wasteful in our attitudes and actions? That we are seperate to our environment and therefore should only care about ourselves?
I wonder…