Bye-bye birdies.

Ever since we've been in this house, there have been countless barn swallows building nests on top of the porch columns. The nests are carefully built..... the little eggs are laid... the mama birds sit on the nests... the papa birds stand guard. When the eggs hatch, both birds fly back and forth constantly to feed those tiny hungry babies.

The nest on the far back corner of the porch had three baby birds, possibly four.... we watched the adult birds flying back and forth every day, and tonight after dinner, we watched through the binoculars as the mama bird fed the baby birds. The beaks on the babies were bright yellow, easily seen even without the binoculars.

Just before "Dancing With the Stars" came on tonight, I went upstairs to check my eMail. I was walking back down the stairs just minutes before seven o'clock and all I could hear were the shrieks of the adult birds. One look out the kitchen window told me all I needed to know-- there was a copperhead snake up on that nest with a baby bird in its mouth and the two adult birds were flying around and around the nest, screaming their little hearts out.

I ran back up the stairs, telling my husband that a snake was in the birds' nest...... he was down the stairs in a flash..... grabbing the broom, a shovel, the cutting shears. He managed to grab the snake by its tail and he swung it around in a circle to get it a bit dizzy... then he smashed it with the shovel and cut it with the shears. During all of that, the adult birds were screaming and circling that nest. One tiny lifeless baby bird was on the back porch, and there were two or three more inside the nest. The adult birds kept circling and calling, but we didn't see the little baby birds peek out of that nest.

My husband got up on the ladder and tried to see if the other babies were still alive, but he just couldn't tell..... they were deep inside the nest, and the adult birds were still shrieking and circling. He will check that nest in the morning, but I don't have much hope for the rest of the baby barn swallows. I'm guessing that the snake just bit them all and killed them, or else they just shrieked themselves to death.

A copperhead. Not a good snake. Not your ordinary garden snake that you can shake a broom at and let it go on its way. Once again.... another reason to keep Mickey and Sweet Pea inside this house. Those two cats might never again see the light of day except through the screen doors of the TV room. Gatsby seems to stay out of harm's way when he's outside, and he much prefers outside to inside. He's more of a street-smart cat than the other two.

I felt so badly for the birds. We've been watching that nest for weeks now... and it was just minutes before all of that happened that we were ooohing and aaahing over those tiny babies. How in the world did that snake get up there so quickly? And how did it even know there was a nest way up there in the first place?

I know those bird-shrieks will be in my mind as my head hits that pillow tonight. Such sad sounds...... I can't even describe the screams. When things like this happen, that book "When Elephants Weep" comes to mind...... how anyone can say that animals don't have feelings and emotions is just beyond me.

"Peaceful country living.' Tell that to the mama bird out on my back porch.