It happened about two hours ago.
Birdy is gone.
I had just woken up from a nap and was sitting at the computer replying some urgent messages when I suddenly saw Ginger walk past clutching a small bird in his mouth. I quickly alerted my husband who was also asleep.
It was Birdy. He managed to retrieve Birdy from Ginger but Birdy was already gone. Husband put Birdy back into the nest. Bella was flying to and fro. It was extremely sad and I apologised to Bella and Felix.
All this while, Ginger had never even once shown any interest in the nest or the birds. It was Tabs whom we were afraid of, Tabs hunts cicadas and flying insects. We prohibited Tabs from going out to the patio, or if she did, it was only under strict supervision by us.
When we went out, we locked Ginger inside the house too, just to play it safe.
But today, we were home, just taking a nap and Ginger opened the mosquito netting (a skill he has perfected) and went out to his patio.
We don’t know what happened, though. Maybe Birdy tried to fly but fell down. Maybe Ginger tried to save Birdy. Ginger couldn’t have possibly leapt into the air to catch Birdy in flight. He’s much too obese to do that. Husband said when he approached Ginger, Ginger actually quickly let go of Birdy and did not not attempt to hang on to him. And on hindsight, Ginger was just walking slowly towards the nest, with Birdy in his mouth. Maybe Ginger picked up Birdy and was trying to take Birdy back to his nest.
We would never know now.
We are so, so sorry, Bella and Felix. We did our very best to ensure your family’s safety and never expected this to happen.
I have wanted to remove the curry leaf tree after Birdy flies the nest. Since Minnie and her boys would be living in Ginger’s Catio, there’s no telling what they would do. Their hunting instincts may still be intact. And they are all young. Minnie is still quite feral in her ways. There is also a Muraya plant in the patio which looks like a suitable place for a nest. Maybe we have to do something, trim the plant to make it less “suitable”. Birds should not build nests in Ginger’s Catio.
Talking about hunting instincts, I found a dead baby lizard in Bunny’s Room yesterday morning. It’s nature. It’s the cats’ primal instinct. They don’t harm the tree shrews (the “tupai”) or the toads, but they go after small lizards.
Rosie and Daffodil used to bring back birds and small snakes all the time. I don’t recall Ginger being a hunter, though.
Sigh…it’s a very sad day. But it’s nature and it happens. Yellow vented bulbuls like to build nests in low places such as potted plants. It’s in their nature. It is very unsafe, and yet, they choose where they want to build their nests. Bella’s second nest was destroyed by Calico, the stray cat. Her third nest was successful (we think), it was built very high up in our palm tree. The first was successful too, Birdy1 flew the nest and all three came back often to visit us from time to time.
Life isn’t perfect. Sigh. This is where I really hope birds do not feel sadness as much as we do. I hope birds accept the visiccitudes of life and move on.