This page is a selection of informal accounts by folks who connect with our AOMC chapter (members and non-members)- stories about their connection to nature.

Petey by Katharina Britton

In the spring of 1999, we were living on our farm in New Hampshire.

We had two large barns, which became nesting places for sparrows and also barn swallows. Each "spring, large population took up spaces in the barns and also in houses we provided for them.

One morning, my husband came up from the barn and informed me that he had found a newly hatched bird on the cement floor. He said it looked like a "fried clam". It was obviously newly hatched. He promptly placed it in one of the swallow nests in the other barn.

I knew that the bird he had found was probably a sparrow and the parents of the swallows would kill it if it was in their nest. We got a ladder and ran to take the baby out of the nest. I found he had already been severely pecked by the swallows. My husband thought it was dead, but holding him in my hand, I could feel his little heart beating. He had been injured first from the fall to the cement floor, then from being attacked by the swallows. His head was bleeding, and one eye looked really bad. At this point, his eyes hadn't opened yet.

Having raised many baby animals and birds, I couldn't just give up. I brought him up to the house and fixed a heating pad and box for him. I let him rest a while and covered him with a cloth. When I returned to check, he immediately raised his little head to be fed! From then on he improved daily. He ate every hour or so for a while. I fed him on commercial formula bird food made for parrot breeders, with supplements of mealworms.

Once he opened his eyes (really, one eye, since the other had been destroyed by the swallows) he assumed I was his mom.

Due to his injuries, I decided that releasing him would just mean an instant death, so he became a pet. We got him a regular bird cage and he has lived in it ever since. He does not like any changes to his home, and becomes very agitated with any attempts at "improvement".

In the past almost nine years, Petey has traveled between New Hampshire and Florida with us and now has a new summer home in Tennessee! He is probably the only Sparrow to have lived in three different states!

He is getting on in years, and his feathers are a little scraggly, but seems to eat well and we read the paper together. He will sit in my hand or land on the newspaper. Then it’s back in his cage where he is safe and very happy.

In his younger days, he would sing every evening, almost like a canary- mimicking other birds he hears. He will respond to the chirping of sparrows outside, but never seemed to actually be with them. Never having seen his parents, I am his mother as far as he knows!

He responds to colors, and will become hysterical if he sees a bright re, orange or pink- so we are reduced to wearing earth tones near him!!

His diet has consisted of fresh corn, rice, assorted seeds, bread and mealworms. So far this has kept him healthy and happy.

Petey has become part of our family, and all our friends are amazed over him. They always ask: "Do you still have Petey?"

I know he won't live forever, but I am thankful for his little presence in our lives. That such a tiny creature can have such a big personality is so surprising, and makes one appreciate that all creatures big and small deserve our respect and protection.

I hope this little story will make others look twice at the little Sparrows picking at their feeders and bread crumbs!

Plea for the English sparrow- 1876 by man who raised 4 different ones.

Conservation Note: Petey is a House Sparrow Passer domesticus. Although common in the US where it is colloquially known as the English Sparrow, it is an invasive European species and is not one included in the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.