ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, May 28, 1996 TAG: 9605280109
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: SHAWSVILLE
SOURCE: DONNA ALVIS-BANKS STAFF WRITER
Rita Donathan thought she could outsmart her blackbird.
The dark winged thing set up housekeeping in a corner of Donathan's smokehouse last spring. It wasn't long before Mrs. Blackbird was joined by three noisy nestlings.
"Every time I opened the door, they flew all around," Donathan said.
And then there was the poop problem.
"Oh, they made such a terrible mess," Donathan moaned.
Over the course of this past long, cold winter, Donathan didn't think much about her blackbird. It wasn't until a few weeks ago - as Donathan was puttering around in the smokehouse where she keeps her canning jars and apple butter kettle - that she spotted Mrs. Blackbird. Donathan's bold boarder had returned to build another nest.
Hoping to nip the approaching agitation in the bud, Donathan flew into action. She found the little hole in a broken window - obviously the point of unlawful entry - and sealed the opening. She thought that was the end of it.
Bye-bye, Blackbird
What she didn't know was that her feathered friend already had laid an egg - or two - in the partially built nest.
"The two baby birds hatched without her," Donathan said. "I don't know how it happened!"
Donathan - a mother and grandmother herself - should have known what would happen next.
On her way out to the smokehouse Friday, she saw a sight that made her stop in her tracks.
"I saw that blackbird standing in the eaves, trying to push a worm through a crack in the wall," she said. "I just thought it was so cute. She was just trying to feed 'em, to make sure they had something to eat."
Donathan left the door to the smokehouse open and the baby blackbirds flew outside.
"I'm sure that the mama's found her baby now," Donathan said.
Donathan, 61, said she has a feeling she and her blackbird have something in common.
"A mother is always busy, no matter how old she gets. She always worries about her children."
And, of course, she knows the moral to this story:
Never, ever try to outsmart a mother.
LENGTH: Short : 50 linesby CNB