I had to kill a bird today

(Warning: this post may contain images that may gross you out, disturb young children, or just make you really sad)

Sad but true; I had to kill a bird today. Well, I didn't kill it, my neighbor did because I couldn't stop tearing up when I tried.

To shorten the story - last night he found a fledgling Blue Jay that fell out of a nest. He tried to put it somewhere safe in the yard near a pile of sticks so that the parents could still tend to it etc. because he could not find the nest.

This morning while I was walking Olive he came over to me to tell me about it. I grabbed some gloves and camera to see what the deal was. When I found the bird it was in a very unfortunate position on its back, clearly injured, and being swarmed by flies. My heart sank. I called Steve M. and Ben G. to see if they had any suggestions. While I waited to hear back from one of them I attempted to help the bird perch to see if there was any chance it could make it.

Although it was not happy when I originally picked it up, it did not want to leave my hand once it realized I was not going to hurt it (a major reason why I couldn't bring myself to killing it in the end myself).

Finally I succeeded in getting the bird to an area where it was up and the parents could try to feed it. Before long things got bad though and the bird drowsed off and fell again. It quickly lost strength and I knew there really was no chance and that the right thing to do was to put it out of its misery (as my mother reminded me).

We dug a hole for it, humanly took care of the bird, and buried it in the garden so that it's body can provide nutrients for other forms of life; perhaps some pretty flowers that a Hummingbird will be attracted to.

It really broke my heart to have to do the right thing. I wanted so much for the bird to miraculously make a come back. I hate when the right thing sucks so much.