The Robin on the Lawn

Leo was helping his nan in her garden in Bristol, England, when he heard a tiny cheep from the lawn. Under the hedge sat a small brown bird with a speckled chest and a stubby tail. It hopped, flapped its short wings and tumbled over.

“It’s fallen out of its nest!” cried Leo. “We have to rescue it!”

Nan leaned on her walking stick and looked closely. “Wait,” she said. “Look at its feathers. This isn’t a helpless baby. It’s a fledgling, a young robin that has left the nest on purpose. It’s learning to fly, and that can take a few days of hopping about.”

“But it’s all alone,” said Leo. “Is it?” Nan smiled. “Let’s watch from the kitchen window.” After a few minutes, an adult robin with a bright orange chest swooped down and popped a worm straight into the fledgling’s open beak.

“The parents stay nearby all the time,” Nan explained. “If we pick it up, we take it away from the best carers it could have.” Leo thought hard. “Then how can we help?”

They made a plan. Nan kept her cat, Marmalade, indoors for the rest of the week. Leo put a shallow dish of water near the hedge. Every afternoon after school he watched from the window and wrote in his notebook.

On Thursday the fledgling hopped onto the garden bench. On Friday it fluttered up to the fence. On Saturday Leo saw it fly all the way to the apple tree, where its parent was singing.

Leo wrote one last line in his notebook: “Sometimes the best help is to watch and wait.”

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