Mother bird shows how to protect her nest
A few days ago, a good friend of mine fell from a ladder. The results suggested that we older folks do not bounce the way we used to. My friend’s knee and shoulder are stiff and sore, and his right arm just about the elbow was splintered in two places. His broken arm also suffered a gash which later became infected.
So, I came to the hospital to visit him. While there, my inclination was to lecture him about climbing ladders at his age, but given the fact that I fell from a ladder two years back necessitating a hip replacement, I thought it better to console, encourage, and pray for him, leaving the lecture to someone who might appear less hypocritical.
As I pulled into the parking lot of the hospital, it became clear that I would have to park quite a distance from the building. When I finally reached the appropriate striped parking space, I was confronted by an angry Killdeer.
The Killdeer is a common ground dwelling bird and a species of plover, a family of birds which often inhabit sandy sea shores. Unlike most other plovers, however, the Killdeer may be seen on fields and parking lots all over America. Killdeer are brown above and white beneath with a very distinctive double black chest band. They are noisy and the one confronting me was characteristically so, shrieking a warning at me, “You have parked too close to my nest.”
The area just in front of my truck was covered in wood chip mulch and, as Killdeers are want to do; she had built an open nest on the ground, carefully camouflaging it among the wood chips. I could not see her nest, but I knew by the way this mother Killdeer stood her ground, challenging my choice of parking spaces, that her nest was nearby.
For a few moments, I sat in the truck contemplating this daring little creature. In spite of the fact that my Ranger weighed more than 2,000 pounds and she but a few ounces, against all odds, this mother was defending her territory to protect her babies.
When I finally exited my vehicle, she panicked and resorted to subterfuge. She played the tried and true broken wing trick for which Killdeer are so well known; spreading one wing and scooting along the ground as if she were seriously injured. Of course Killdeer always head away from their nest so evil intruders such as me are drawn away from the little ones. When she determines that the enemy is sufficiently duped into chasing her a safe distance from the nest, she flies away laughing to herself, “I fooled you; ha ha, my babies are safe.”
As I traversed what my hip suggested was a long trek into the hospital, I thought about my encounter with the brave, little mother Killdeer. She reminded me of Gideon on whom God conferred the heavy burden of attacking the Midianite army of 135,000 troops with a band of 300 men. (See Judges Chapter Seven) Instinct seems to have placed a similarly heavy burden on the shoulders of the little Killdeer mothers by inducing them to build their nest out in the open so that they must devise extraordinary ways to defend their little ones.
I reflected upon how today’s mothers, like the Killdeer, must protect their children from a great number of dangerous enemies. Like the Killdeer babies in their open nest on the ground, our children must grow to adulthood in a society full of dangerous peer pressure, drugs, alcohol, promiscuity, materialism, and self will run riot. Our children have many advantages, but also, so many threats.
Like Killdeer mothers, the mothers of our children today must use every “trick in the book” to protect their babies. I suggest love and unity at home, faithful church attendance, and good moral standards of their own. Like that brave little Killdeer in the hospital parking lot, Mothers – be brave! Stand your ground against the wreckage of our society, no matter how daunting the challenge. We need armies and great leaders, but good mothers; we need you more! You are our heroines.
DeWitt Clinton of Dunbar is the minister for the Church of Christ Church on Connellsville Street in Uniontown.