Tag Archives: birds of the air.

Caring for young

Posted in Birds, Family, My thoughts, Nature by

The gulls have reared their young and have gone fishing in the Irish Sea. They are doing what they were born to do.

There are threats from our neighbours. They want to cover over our chimney so the gulls won’t nest there next year. What excitement we would miss.

The behaviour of the mother gull to defend her young has spoken to me this summer. She stood watch over her young for hours, days and weeks until they were fully grown.

She dived down to anyone whom she thought was a threat. As parents do we fiercely attack anything or person that may attack our young? We have spent hours, days, nights, months and years caring for our young; keeping watch, feeding and helping them do what they were born to do.

In the my experience growing up in the country in Ireland, extended family and community helped each other. There were Godly values we adhered to.

Nowadays having a big family is frowned upon. The world offers pills and abortions to get rid of children you didn’t plan for. Doctors get paid extra to sterilise and remove wombs. The parents are left to rear their family themselves. Self control is needed to look after our young. One can’t be selfish. Is there anyone to help?

Children are for life not just as cuddly babies. They turn into rebellious teenagers who can’t wait to be adult and get away from the ones who reared them.
No wonder some parents are perplexed and in despair.

I take hope in the Word of God. It tells me your work will be rewarded. God who made the heavens and the earth said he would care for me.

Isaiah 45 v 12
I am the one who made the earth and created people to live in it. With my hand I stretched out the heavens. All the millions of stars are at my command.
46 v 3
I created you and cared for you before you were born. I will be your God throughout your lifetime until your hair is white with age.

It is so good to trust in the God who made the heavens and the earth . Even the birds of the air speak to us about him.

Pheasants Come to Visit.

Posted in Birds, My thoughts, Nature, Provision by

I was sitting by my bedroom window with my feet up taking a few moments to praise and thank God for the beauty all around.  I have been writing about birds in some of my posts.  I am learning from them each time because Jesus says “Look at the birds.”

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I was pleasantly surprised when some movement at the side of the lawn caught my eye. I watched as a mother pheasant followed by five young, walked along the side of the garden.  There is dead, brown vegetation as well as green grass there.  The five chicks spread out looking for seeds in the mixture of vegetation on the verge of the lawn.  In the photo I hope you can see the hen on the look out, a chick to the left under a bush and another to the right.  One, with coloured feathers like a necklace, ventured further than the others.  He must be a young male.  His coloured feathers were beginning to show.

I enjoyed the scene before me for some minutes.  I wanted a closer look.  I got my binoculars.  The hen stopped, relaxed and began to preen her feathers.   She stretched her wings, ruffled her feathers and scratched.  I could see the pattern on her feathers as she picked through them.  Her overall colour blended well into the background of brown vegetation.  Her chicks investigated the foliage around her.  They had no fear, as their mum was close by.

A farmer is harvesting his crop of wheat over the fence from where we live today.  Beyond the field is a forest.  They must have been disoriented today because of the noise of the farm machinery.  The wheat would be their convenient supply of food.  It is harvested today. They will have to search for seeds left on the ground.

It is true what Jesus said.

Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? (‭Matthew‬ ‭6‬:‭26-27‬ NIV)

God had supplied a whole field of wheat for this family.  I can see the pheasant family are well cared for, how much more will God care for me and my family.  We are more important than the birds of the air.

What are the main things people worry about: health, lack of money, how to look after their children, what to eat, being alone, where to live.  Have faith in God, who promises if we seek him first he will add all things unto us.  I can testify to God’s provision for food, houses, and health for my family of fourteen children.

So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?  But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. (‭Matthew‬ ‭6‬:‭31, 33‬ NIV)

I was pleasantly surprised to see this family of pheasants cross my lawn in the early morning after we returned from holiday.  I watched as they jumped up onto the bank to the left and head back to their nest for a rest after their morning forage.  I will see them again.

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Update, Sunday 20th September, saw family in orchard garden in the afternoon.

Saturday 26th morning at dawn family flew from neighbours garden into ours.  They played about for a while.