Day 3901: Murphy and My Tree

 

"Forces":  junk mail collage, digital

* PS Alert: My significant other (Mac Pro laptop) is still ill, and not himself. I am not able to format, so things are out of place.

 

               

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2GN2S ...

An Eagle Who Adopted a Rock Becomes a Real Dad

Murphy, a bald eagle at a bird sanctuary in Valley Park, Mo., had been incubating a rock, and his keepers did not have the heart to separate them. He seemed ready when an eaglet needed a dad.

 

Day after day, the determined bird sat on the rock, which was hospitably strewn with leaves and branches, seemingly waiting for the impossible.

Visitors at the sanctuary could not help but wonder about Murphy, whose lethargic behavior drew so much notice that the sanctuary said it hung a sign outside the bird's enclosure for curious onlookers. "Is That Eagle Hurt?" the sign read. "If you see an eagle lying down in the back left corner under a perch, that's Murphy! Murphy is not hurt, sick, or otherwise in distress. He has built a nest on the ground and is very carefully incubating a rock! We wish him the best of luck!"

the rock

By a stroke of coincidence, shortly after Murphy started sitting on his meteorite-sized rock, the sanctuary received word that an eagle nest containing two chicks nearby had fallen down due to high winds on April 2. One eaglet survived the incident and was brought to World Bird Sanctuary, where the 14-day-old baby bird was dubbed "eaglet 23-126."

After examining the chick and helping it to recover, World Bird Sanctuary decided to have one of its eagles foster the baby. Sights immediately turned to Murphy, who had shown a high sense of protectiveness around his rock baby by screaming and charging at other eagles who came close to his nest. 

Slowly, the sanctuary staff began introducing Murphy to the baby in a private enclosure. On April 6, the rescue put the eaglet in a "Baby Jail" — a protective cage — for its first meet with Murphy.

Once the sanctuary's staff felt satisfied that Murphy had accepted eaglet 23-126, they set the baby free inside Murphy's private habitat.

In an update posted last Wednesday, the sanctuary said it had dropped two types of foods into the enclosure: chopped food that the chick could eat on its own and a large fish that only Murphy could handle. The rescue said Murphy shredded up the fish and helped feed it to the baby for the first time — taking quickly to his fatherhood duties shortly after the sanctuary offered him the fish to share with the chick.

The sanctuary said about the bond between the birds, "It's just too much for the heart to handle." 

 

When I was at the kitchen sink this morning, I noticed little white specks floating left to right in my view. I was puzzled, but then I thought, it must be the apple tree by my front door. I opened my front door and saw

(looking straight up)

By summer it will be full and green providing welcome shade. By fall it will be full of yellow leaves that drop all over. By winter it's bare branches like above before the flowers started. I love this tree.

 

 

A great 1+minute video, Murphy, here.

 

Just because ...

  

Augur Buzzard

 

Smiles for Monday ...

  

  

 

 

 

                             Thanks for coming by today ...