Yulia PuchkovaChapter 9
A SURPRISE FOR NICK
This happened last summer. Our
Science teacher told us to find a bird's nest in the forest or garden.
He asked us to watch the birds' eggs. He wanted us to see how chicks appeared out of eggs, and how their parents fed them. Also, he told us to write down what we saw.
In June we went to Granny who lives in the country. As soon as I came, I started looking for a nest. I couldn't find one, and
I was sad. Gran and I went to the forest, but we didn't find any nests there either. It was a real problem.
Then I had a brilliant idea.
I decided to make a nest myself.
I took a lot of thin twigs, dry grass and started working. It was a hard job, but three days later
I had a wonderful big nest. Of course, I didn't have any feathers or fluff. But Granny gave me a pillow, and I cut it and took out the feathers. Then I put them inside the nest. Now it was soft and cosy. It was ready for birds.
The next day I chose a tall tree, took a ladder and started climbing with the nest in my right hand. Then I found a thick branch with a lot of thin twigs. I put my nest there and climbed down.
I was very happy and proud.
That night I went to bed very early. I wanted to get up early and look at my nest.
The next morning, as soon as
I got up, I ran to the tree, but there were no birds. I was very sad, but Granny said, 'Don't be upset. Birds don't know about your nest yet. They will come soon. You must wait.'
I waited three days. On the fourth morning I ran out and saw that there was something grey in the nest. I was so happy. Now my nest was a real home for some grey birds. I wanted to watch them. So I took my binoculars to see them better. When I looked through the binoculars, I cried in horror. Pat was next to me. She took my binoculars, looked through them and started laughing. But for me it wasn't funny at all. There, in my wonderful nest, were no birds.
There was our neighbour's fat cat.
It just fitted in the nest and was fast asleep.
That was the end of my nest- building activities. I didn't want to get a bad mark for the Science task. So I took a photo with the cat in it.
In September I brought the photo to school. When my Science teacher saw the photo, he started laughing and almost fell off the chair. When he stopped, I said: