Mississippi River Trip: This is for the bird!

The next morning I awoke to the sound of Larisa talking to herself.  This is not an uncommon occurrence, but this time she sounded worried, so I got out of the tent.  I found her squatting under a tree talking to my camera, apparently shooting video.  That morning as she was making her coffee a baby bird fell from a nest and onto the picnic table, nearly making her morning brew a meaty affair.  She used a cloth to move it under the tree,  and then began feeling all mushy towards the baby bird.  I knew what was coming, and I was right.

The first order of business was returning the bird to its nest.  I tend to be a “nature happens” kind of guy, but when your wife is gazing at you teary eyed and you know you have to share a tent with her for another month you tend to re-evaluate your positions.  We called a ranger first, who told us “nature happens”.  Then I tried to reach the nest by standing on the picnic table, then on the cooler on the picnic table.  Finally we moved the table and I drove the car under the tree.  From the roof I could reach the nest, and now that I could see it better I saw that the baby fell because a supporting twig had snapped in the wind.  I pulled down the nest and relocated it to another branch, then put the bird back.  We did what we could – momma bird was certainly interested in what we were doing, so maybe it survived.

As I began to come down off of the roof I slipped and landed on the door, which is now hanging about 10 degrees out of true.  Small price to pay for having a happy tentmate.