Any Extreme

On the way back from taking some baby pictures for Keaton's cousin Andrea, Paula and I stopped at Cabelas for a moment to pick something up for Stan. Being in the Prius ensured that we would be parking in the very furthest parking spot from the entrance (Paula maintains that it is for the exercise--but I know better.) When we got out of the car she showed me something she had noticed on a trip a few days earlier. In the middle of the parking lot rock landscaping, there sat a very nervous bird.

"She made such a sqwaking the last time we came here," Paula told me, "we looked to see what the fuss was about. Check it out. She's sitting on some eggs."

So she was. In the blazing July heat, this poor little bird was crouched protectively over her eggs in quite an ill-chosen spot, right there on the ground amongst the landscaping rocks. I had my camera with me, of course, so I tried to sneak a bit closer to get a better view.

"She doesn't like it if you get close," Paula said. "Last time she came after me."

Sure enough, our presence put the little mother on red alert. In distress, she popped up from her rock-nest and skittered several feet away from it.

"She's trying to draw us away from her eggs," I said in wonder.

That wasn't all. As I inched closer to to her greatest treasure, she began hopping and fluttering around, chirping and sqwaking and vigorously flailing about. It became immediately apparant that she was pretending to be injured, as if her wing were broken and she couldn't fly. For a bird, this must be something akin to laying yourself across train tracks or stepping in front of a firing squad. She was trying to draw us away. We were a threat...and she was using herself as bait to lure us away from her babies. In a very real way, she was offering herself as a sacrifice--willing to go to any extreme to ensure her babies' safety.

It really touched me. I snuck one last picture and we decided not to disturb her anymore. As we backed away and she hurriedly returned to her spot protectively crouched on the eggs, I felt a sort of kinship with her. Wouldn't any mother do the same?
I hugged my own baby a little bit tighter as soon as I got home.