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A Mother's Story.....
Based on an actual event which occured in Yellowstone National Park in the 1980's
GoldenView
Bill had been a Forest Ranger for many years, but he had never seen such a fire! As he & his fellow Rangers trekked up the mountain, he was in awe of the destruction.�
What a sight! Only the burnt-out husks of trees remained. One Ranger said, "We could be standing on the Moon!"
...and Bill agreed.� "Everything's so still! ... Not a sound! ...
Not a sign of life anywhere!" he sighed as he poked here & there, with a stick, checking for hot-spots.
Then he called to the others. "Hey! This is amazing! Look at this!" A few feet ahead of him, was a female bird that had been literally petrified in ashes. What really caught Bill's eye, was the way she was standing up... yes! ....Standing up!
There she was.....a little creature frozen in time, with her feathers neatly fluffed.... her beak closed, her serene eyes looking straight ahead.
"She' so tiny!", whispered Bill, who felt she was going to fly
away any moment, even though he KNEW she could not
have lived through the fire. "She's standing so tall that she looks like a little soldier!" "Hmmm...perhaps more like a statue of a soldier." said another ranger.�
Bill walked up to her.....Still halfway expecting her to move. With his stick, he gently pushed at her...... but nothing
happened. He pushed again. Nothing.�
Now he stooped down to touch her. Nothing.
He stooped down even lower, to look in her eyes, and then something really weird happened!
Nothing had prepared the Rangers for what they were about to see!� There WAS life in that little bird! (In a way.)
At the moment it happened, Bill was "beak to beak" with the little bird. He was so shocked that he fell backward and ended up sitting in a heap of (thankfully) cool ashes.
Incredibly, three very tiny chicks...VERY tiny....and very LIVELY little chicks ....scurried out from under her wings!
This was a MOTHER bird!�
"What a brave little soul!", said Bill, who was quickly
brushing off the ashes and comprehending the situation. "She must have been keenly aware of the approaching fire,
and she knew her babies would die if she left them high up in the nest."
(A firemen and forests rangers know that heat and smoke always rise. That's why they always tell us that if we should ever become trapped in a fire, we must stay down LOW to the ground.)
"I bet she pushed them out of the tree, hoping the fall wouldn't hurt them, then gathered them under her wings,
to protect them as much as she could!"......"My goodness!"
....."And that's where they have been, until now!" ......
"Do you really think the mother bird knew what she was
doing?" asked one of the Rangers....& Bill nodded, slowly and somberly ...."Oh yes....Sheknew...She knew exactly what she was doing. Instinct told her....A bird's instinct, and a mother's instinct."
"And she MUST have realized that she could have saved herself!" said another forest ranger. It would have been so easy for her to just fly away to safety, but she stood there! Wow! Can you believe this?! What a brave little bird!"
"What a selfless little bird!" said Bill.
(Watching the chicks scamper around, the forest rangers were almost brought to tears.)
"Now it's up to us to make sure her chicks survive! We can't leave them out here on there own! They don't know how
to feed themselves yet. Besides, even if they did, in this
desolation, they wouldn't find anything to eat!"
So the rangers scooped up the little balls of fluff, & tenderly carried them back to the station. There they lived, until they were old enough to return to the wild.
By that time there were green shoots of grass & lots of seeds to eat! The forest was NOT dead! It might take years to look like it did before the fire, but it was going to be more beautiful than ever. Bill was sure of it!
And, thanks to their mom's� love, and the caring hands that nurtured them, the chirpings of three happy little birds can now be heard in that forest!�
Yes - We can be sure that a mother bird is looking down on them from Heaven and saying to the other little bird angels,
"See! Those are MY babies! Aren't they the cutest chicks you've ever SEEN!" And the other angel-birds are looking at
each other, knowingly, and saying ..."Yep! That's a MOTHER for you!"