Unreserved

Back in the end of May I said a nest of sparrows were in our gutters. They had started out in the garage* earlier in the spring. I reached to take a bag of crabgrass killer off the shelf and disturbed a slightly agitated mama bird, and found a nest of five tiny eggs. The babies hatched and my crabgrass thrived.
The baby birds started to fledge and spent a day or so on the floor of the garage, then they all moved up into the gutter.
Mama and Papa bird are setting up housekeeping in the garage again, this time up in the rafters. I enjoy watching them run back and forth bringing home the bacon (bugs). They're pretty friendly and don't mind me hanging about. I wondered what kind of sparrows they are, so I looked them up. Much searching later I've figured out that our tenants aren't sparrows after all. I believe they're Carolina wrens. Maybe I spent way too much time looking up something so unimportant, but like knowing who's raising young above my car.

Speaking of raising young, sometimes I wonder where the dividing line is between incentives and outright bribes. And whether it matters (especially if it works). For instance, if your previously solidly potty-trained child started having accidents of all varieties, and you could find no cause, would it be considered bribing to tell them if they go seven days without an accident you will buy them a small, inexpensive toy they've been clamoring after? Hypothetically speaking, of course. And this would, hypothetically, come after punishment (in the form of revoked television privileges) didn't help. When does "reward" cross the line into "bribe"? (and does it matter as long as we don't have to scrub or discard any more soiled clothing?)

*Our garage has only the ruins of what used to be a door. I don't care because it still keeps the snow off the vehicles.

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