After a long winter, it's finally early spring in Toronto.
The sun was shining brightly on this day in mid-March. I had started my spring cleaning. After cleaning the inside, I cleaned outside. When cleaning the backyard patio, I found some small pieces of hay on the ground. The year before, robins made their nest on my grape trellis.
It occurred to me that the robins may return again this Spring. I looked up at the grape trellis, looking for any sign of a bird nest. Then, looking down, I saw a few more scattered pieces of hay and wool right beside the back door of my house. What! The robins had really come again, and I was pleasantly surprised. I immediately went into the house to get my camera. I took a photo and sent it to my friends to share the good news.
Day by day, week by week. I observed a pair of robins come flying to the trellis, with hay in their mouths from time to time. But on the grape trellis, there were still only a few pieces of hay fluttering in the wind. However, by the fence on the ground and in the corner of the wall, new hay was gathering every day.
"What's going on?" I wondered. After some thought, I realized that the steel pipes of the grape trellis were too smooth to hold the pieces of hay. Despite the hard work of the pair of robins, day after day, the bird's nest was not getting built. Seeing the fruits of their daily hard work being mercilessly blown away by the wind, I felt pity for the robins. I started to build a beautiful and sturdy nest for them beside their chosen location. But they did not appreciate it at all. They did not look at it at all.
"Oh, why don't you understand my kindness?"
I told my friend about it. A friend said: "Don't worry, there were birds before there were humans. They are much smarter than you, so let it trouble you!”
So, for the next few days, I just watched quietly, and those two robins kept working.
It was raining heavily one day, and they kept putting some mud on the hay, trying to hold the hay in place so that the wind wouldn't blow it away. "These little birds are so smart, I admire them!”
However, the next day, the mud fell, and the building materials they had worked so hard to gather, were blown away by the wind. Seeing this scene, I was even more anxious than them. I cleaned up the hay on the trellis and on the ground, expecting to see them nest in a more suitable place. But they were indifferent to my actions, and they still flew around with hay every day, but there was no progress in the nesting project. This is simply the ‘Foolish Old Man’ in these robins! This kind of persistent and stubborn behavior is like a pair of young boys and girls who are passionately in love.
It's was now almost mid-April, and the couple had been busy for a month, but their new home was still a long way from being built. I began to worry, where would they lay eggs without a love nest?
Alas, what made me love them so much? I disregarded the last lesson and helped them again.
I found a piece of wood and put it on the steel pipe to turn the original single cross into a double cross. I picked up the hay and woolen threads all over the ground and put them in the middle of the steel pipe and two wooden slats, and I tried to piece together a prototype of a bird's nest, that could be seen as a semi-finished product. I did not know if they would like it.
Fortunately, the two birds liked my starter project this time! They flew in every morning to take advantage of the frame I had made, and devoted themselves to the construction of the bird's nest with renewed effort. I was first afraid that my role of "enthusiastic neighbor" would disturb them when going in and out every day.
They developed the structure into a deep round bird's nest that looked like a "yurt". It looked pretty good. It can be seen that animals also have their own aesthetics. I imagined that in the future, when they hatch baby birds in it, they should be comfortable and safe, right?
Walking in the backyard one morning, I realized that I hadn't seen the birds for two or three days, and it was now April 25th. What's the matter?
Maybe they felt that my going in and out every day was disturbing to them? “This place is not suitable, we will move to another place...?"
I was a little stunned, all kinds of regret accompanied by waves of sadness, flooded into my heart. "I'm sorry, I'm really sorry."
I was feeling apologetic, when suddenly two birds came into my field of vision.
"Oh, it's them! It's them coming back." I was overjoyed, it seemed to be the reunion between relatives and friends after a long absence. The mother bird cautiously probed into the bird's nest, but I didn't see it coming out again. I also watched carefully, feeling inexplicably excited all day, opening the door from time to time to look at the bird's nest.
Just when I opened the door and watched, the mother bird was sticking her head out to watch me. Our eyes were facing each other, my eyes flashed desperately to show goodwill, while her eyes were more reserved and persistent, and seemed to carry a kind of confident alertness, which made me a little embarrassed. I'm sure there's probably an egg in the nest, otherwise how could it be so brave and persistent.
I feel the greatness of the power of love in the world. Even the little bird who is a mother-to-be has such a clear maternal love. For the baby bird who is about to live, she is fearless, awe-inspiring and inviolable. Such a noble maternal love is by no means inferior to that of human beings.
Hello everybody, my name is Dave Page. Today I am going to read part two of a wonderful story called The Robins Return by Yu Rong Su. Part Two is entitled “The Baby Birds Are Born”
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