Single mom Fay Cooke, already looking after three daughters, now has two other little mouths to accommodate and feed.
But the more the merrier, they say, and Fay’s new tenants are chirping over the welcome.
Susan and George, two house sparrows, have been regular visitors to Fay’s Kanonkop home for many years, settling to make their nest and raise their young in the space between the ceiling and the roof.
What was a surprise, however, was that the three babies this year, named Nick, Kevin and Joe, after the famous Jonas brothers, were introduced to the Cookes yesterday (Wednesday), a bit earlier than usual, according to Meagan, Fay’s eldest daughter.
@middelburgobserver A pair of nesting house sparrows, welcomed three chicks to their brood before dad decided to kick the needy kids out. Though one unfortunately died, two survived. Fay Cooke and her daughters decided to rehome the chicks in a carry crate, where mom still goes to feed them every day. From tonight the chicks will be taken indoors to protect them from wandering cats. Read the heartwarming story on the Middelburg Observer website. Link in the comments.
Early on Thursday morning, Meagan noticed Luna, their Border Collie, sniffing at two small fluffy balls of ‘something’ on the driveway, “Luna doesn’t like any other animals, and I’ve seen her go for birds before, even hadadas. As soon as I noticed they were baby birds, I immediately shouted at Luna to ‘leave!’, and she did.”
Realising the babies must be from the roof, she quickly ran inside, closed all the windows and made sure Luna and her feline sister Honey were trapped inside and the babies were at no harm of becoming a quick snack.
Unfortunately, Meagan found one baby that didn’t survive the leap from the roof.
“I called my mum straight away in a panic, and she told me what to do, with the help of a work colleague. Their mum is still feeding them, and I didn’t want to touch them, but the tar of the drive was so hot, the dad was jumping on them, and a minor bird was attacking them! I had no choice but to move them into my old hamster cage. The roof is far too high, and we won’t be able to put them back, so I’m going to look after them inside tonight, and hopefully the mum will continue to feed them tomorrow. If not, I’m happy to adopt for the next few weeks,” said Meagan.
Meagan and her two sisters, Madison and Morgan, have already made a roster, and a quiet place away from the other pets has been made to accommodate the new tweeting siblings, which hopefully will be released back into the wild in a few weeks.
The Cooke family all hope Susan will be waiting to welcome them back home.
