On the Wings of King Arthur!

Once upon a time long ago I found a blue egg broken on the ground after a storm had blown the nest out of the tree, was a new hatched baby Robin, half out of his egg and not moving. I put the nest on a piece of wood I found and pounded it in the ground , I put the nest on top of the wood and went to my yard to see if mom Robin would come back, she did not. I went and retrieve the nest and put it in the house. I really was at a loss as what to do.

Next day I called a man that by coincidence had an article in our news paper the day before on birds. I called him and he said try and feed him worms cut up and if that did not work try hamburg. I then began a routine, I had an old cat carrying case I set up on end, put the heating pad on low, put a towel in and wrapped him up in a small cloth. I went out to our back yard and put some dirt in a coffee can and dug up some worms. I fed him with a pair of tweezers and I cut the worms very small. As soon as I picked him up he had his little mouth open, wanting to be fed, it was hard to get the worm in his mouth just right so he would swallow it.

Eventually he turned from very pink to a dark colored body as he started to grow. I put him in our bedroom window, and a mom Robin had built a nest in the tree where he could see and hear the baby robins make noises when she came back to feed them. I made a nest for him as he started getting bigger. He was doing very well on the worms. When he started getting feathers it looked strange to see how their wings are hollow. I hung his cage outside when he had full feathers. Soon I decided to take him out of his cage outside and to the back yard to watch me dig worms. I thought he would fly away and I was very nervous. he flew up on the garage roof, I talked to him and low and behold he flew down to me.

Every day we did this, I would bury worms by him and he work dig them up, he was like a pet bird, when I walked across the yard he flew on my shoulder, when we set in the glider he came to us. I put water in an old fry pan and he would bath. One night I had a scare, he flew way over to the neighbors tree and would not come back. I usually put him in a cage in the garage to sleep for the night and I would get up a dawn to feed him. I was afraid our neighbor cat would get him, because the cat was at out house every day.

The next morning I got up at dawn and went out to see if he had come back and he was right in our yard. I had a heart pounding decision, if we should let him stay in the yard or release him elsewhere. I called Hoffman Park rangers and ask their advise, they recommend I could release him at the park. The day we decided to do this was a tearful day. We took him to the park and the rangers had recommended a path that was used very little. I was afraid he would come to anyone that walked down the path.

Well, we released him, he flew out and up in a tree, we called to him but he never came back. This release is like seeing someone you have grown very fond of and loved go away forever. We went back a few days later to see if he was still around, no luck. I have tears in my eyes just writing about this. I would like to mention that I did not take one picture of him. Our newspaper did come to the house and take a picture of me holding him, and that is all I have of KING ARTHUR, a very fitting name for a brave little ROBBIN that showed us his courage to survive in this great big world.