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The Warmth of My Nest
The Warmth of My Nest
When the sunlight struck her face and woke her up that morning, Mom Woodpecker knew something good was about to happen. All of the leaves on the tree were starting to fall down and the cold winds started to blow. Far away flew Dad Woodpeckers looking for the tall tree where they had started to excavate their nest a few weeks ago. Next to the tree stood an electricity post and on the wire, safe from the predators, was the Hummingbirds’ nest, there rested four little eggs that Mom Hummingbird just laid. That night when the Hummingbird family were cuddling up and getting ready to go to sleep, Mom Woodpecker was busy finishing up the arranges of her nest so her eggs would be as warm as possible. At midnight, with everyone unaware, a cold wind from the south pushed one of the Hummingbirds’ eggs out of the nest and made it roll down the wire and fall on the tree and after bouncing through the leaves it landed in the Woodpeckers’ nest.
The next morning, Mom Woodpecker woke up to the sight of three beautiful eggs and after staring for several minutes she noticed a fourth egg, hiding behind the others, that was half the size of the rest. She wasn’t alarmed by the size, because she believed in Mother Nature’s wisdom. Her instinct as a mother told her to give a special care to the tiny egg, which she named ‘Little Feather’, but that didn’t stop her to love each egg as equal. Both, Mom and Dad Woodpecker, were happy and very enthusiastic for their beautiful white eggs, so they invited their friends to celebrate the beginning of their new family. The Canaries, the Quails, and the Pigeons assisted to the Woodpeckers’ reunion. After the good wishes and blessings from their friends, when everybody was leaving, Dad Canary and Dad Woodpecker stayed a little longer and discussed how strange for a woodpecker to lay such a little egg, like Little Feather. When Mom and Dad Canary were walking out of the celebration, he turned around and warned the Woodpeckers about the new predator that was prowling around the neighborhood. “He has big claws and if you look in his eyes you can see the hunger of kill, he moves as fast as the wind and is very dangerous” said Dad Canary, leaving poor Mom Woodpecker shaking to the bone but before the hatching everything went quite normal; the eggs were always protected by the trunk and their mother’s warmth.
After two weeks of incubation the babies hatched and Mom and Dad Woodpecker noticed minimal differences between Little Feather and the others, but they thought that was completely normal. While growing up, Mom Woodpecker found out that Little Feather didn’t like to eat insects like his brothers, but he preferred nectar from flowers; Also they were different in size, color, and speed, Mom Woodpecker concluded that maybe Little Feather was someone else’s baby. But even though she knew all of these, she made each of her newborns feel special, and so it wasn’t difficult for Little Feather’s brothers to make him feel welcomed and loved. (526 Words)
The moral of the story is that a parent is not the one that gives you life but the one that takes care of you and makes you feel loved.
