THE ROBIN AND THE SPARROW, CHAPTER 6

Scroll down for earlier Chapers dated October 16, 17, 19, 21 and 24

Tara, the family dog always followed the farmer around. The day before he was digging post holes to fix his fence behind the barn. With one post short, he drove to town for the post and other supplies. When he returned darkness had fallen so he decided to finish the job in the morning. Early next next day Tara went outside through her "doggie door" to make her usual rounds and sniff out her territory. She heard faint sounds behind the barn. Knowing it might be urgent, she ran to the house door and scratched but when the man came she refused to enter. He sensed it was important or she would have used her own door. Tara pointed her nose in the direction of the barn and eagerly led the way, pausing at intervals to look back to be sure he was following her.

The man reached down the hole with a gloved hand and pulled up a soft ball of fluff. He placed a cover over the empty hole and decided to go back for a bowl of water. When he returned he found the ball of fluff had a visitor - the mother bird. She sensed telepathically that the man meant only good as he placed the baby back into its nest. She chirped her thanks. The parent birds had been out gathering harmful but edible bugs for breakfast. Their growing babies would soon be ready for flying lessons and able to collect their own breakfast. No doubt the parent birds would be reminding their brood to be more careful and the man would be telling himself he must always place a cover over any vacant cavity.

Downy's idea was to get the attention of some forward thinking scientists who would be willing to work on this project in a similar manner. Many farmers had windmills in their yards to pump water from their wells. By determining the time migrating beetles were set to form a cloud to be blown to the next grove of trees their scout had found for them, the windmills would blow the cloud off course into a lake or grasslands with no trees to eat. When their last last grove of trees lay dying, scientists would be able to determine when the cloud of invading beetles were ready to invade their next healthy grove of trees.

Just then the air was split at the speed of a bullet as a streak of green flashed into the bird's brainstorming session. All eyes turned toward Ole and Downy as they tuned in to what message might be forthcoming telepathically. "Here comes Kn, a hummingbird of the Annus family - the dictionary translation is 'wonderful' Ole observed in his silent way. They can speed at nearly 20 kilometers per second. What they lack in size they make up for in action. His mate Ln is completing their nesting routine." A quick note rang forth from Kn as he landed, that sounds like a 'high-e' note of human music. Males of the Annus family have an extra tail feather they use for fast flight take-off as well as braking when landing. This feature will turn out to be very helpful in the next step of the plan.