An empty bird’s nest was perched on the back of Dave McKeag’s huge 4440 John Deere tractor. Dave noticed it as he checked the transmission oil before starting out to disk the 180 acres near Highways 56 and 19 that he and his son, Dan, were planting in soybeans.
Since there were no eggs in the nest, Dave thought it had been abandoned but for some unknown reason he left it there and headed out to work the fields. He would spend the next 4 1/2 days disking.
It was on the second day that Dave saw that there had been a change in the nest. There were four blue eggs nestled in it.
Well, the nest had been built securely and hadn’t budged while he had been driving the tractor the first couple of days, so Dave headed back out into the fields with his little “Hitch Hikers” packed in the back.
Dave couldn't see the nest from the cab of the tractor.
It was only when he stopped the tractor out in the fields to take a break and walk around to stretch a bit that he saw the mother bird. She was perched on the large disk he was pulling behind and appeared to be strongly scolding him!
Bird language was not translated but her attitude was pretty apparent! When all the fields were disked, Dave parked his tractor in the shade to protect the little babies.
And they were happily growing up, getting ready to leave their "mobile" home and fly away to more adventures!
