Nature Walk, and Sad Mommies

We took a nice stroll around the neighborhood this morning to enjoy the beautiful day. Not to mention to get some energy out of my children before church. On our walk, we found a small blue egg. (Robin egg?) I looked up and couldn't find a nest for it to have fallen out of so I decided to do a little teaching. Melanie wanted to quickly cradle the delicate egg in her hands and keep it warm. Every bird she saw after that was the egg's potential parent. I tried talking her into giving it back to the mommy and daddy to take care of (a hundred percent sure the bird would get NO where near that egg whether or not we touched it).

She finally relented and went to deliver the egg to a Mommy bird. As she got out of the stroller to commence her delivery, she made the smallest of cracks in the shell. "OH NO! The baby die?!" Yes, the baby died Melanie. So, we still try to put it in the grass and Julia (being the Tom Boy she is picked it right up and squashed it!) Well... at this point... baby is REALLY dead. All the way home Melanie asked me, "Is the Mommy crying? Is she sad?"

Later on as we left the house for church we found another tiny blue egg crushed near our front door. (Not my childrens' doing this time) Then after church... we found another one near our front door. We have a mourning dove nest on our Fire Alarm outside. I'm starting to think maybe the blue eggs are Mourning dove eggs!? I'm also starting to think that Momma bird has really bad aim about getting those eggs into her nest and not on the ground.