1700 tired birds

M & T were having a quiet evening. They were sitting on their balcony watching the moon come up over the hills, its faint light dancing over SnoozyTown.

The gentle evening was turning into night, and everyone was going to bed. Evenings in SnoozyTown were quiet and still.

But tonight there was a soft sound in the air that M & T were not used to. There was rustling in the trees and chirps from the birds. Normally the birds were some of the first to rest in SnoozyTown. But tonight they seemed a little unsettled.

M & T sat on their balcony and watched the sunset fully fade away. But even as they were going to bed, the rustling hadn't stopped, and the birds still made slightly unhappy, squawky sounds deep in the trees.

The next morning when M & T woke up, they took their warm milk and porridge back out to the balcony. SnoozyTown was coming alive. People were coming and going. Kids were off to school. Adults were on the way to work. There was chatter, laughs, and shouts from all over the town.

As they were sitting down for their breakfast, their friend, Cookie the bird, slowly and wearily flew onto their balcony. Cookie did not look too energetic.

"Cookie, what is it?" said M & T.

"I just had the worst night's sleep," said Cookie. "And not just me, everyone."

M & T said, "Ah, but we've slept really well."

"I slept magnificently in fact," said T.

"Oh, I was so cosy," said M. "My duvet is so warm."

But Cookie said, "No, not you, not the humans. The birds. There's something wrong with our nests. All of us haven't slept well."

There were 1700 birds in SnoozyTown, and that night all 1700 birds had slept really, really badly. Every bird who normally got into their comfy nest, rolled up, tucked their head under a wing, and went off to sleep just couldn’t settle.

Cookie was a bit suspicious and brought M & T around all of the nests. M & T were wearing their Fixer t-shirts, and because Cookie had a mystery to solve, M & T gave a special bird-fitting Fixer t-shirt to Cookie. It had extra-wide sleeves for wings instead of arms.

"You're going to be a Fixer today, and we're going to get to the bottom of this mystery," said M & T. "We're going to help the birds."

As they were toured around the nests, every one of the 1700 birds had the same complaint.

"Our nest has just gone totally uncomfy. Normally we have beautiful nests,” complained a lady Sparrow.

“We make our nests so soft you can just put your head on the edge and you fall straight away to sleep. Boop!"

"Oh yeah. I don’t even need to count humans,” added a neighbouring Emu. "I can just go boop" (Boop is the bird word for straight to sleep). "But not last night. No boop!"

"What’s wrong with the nests?" asked M & T.

"Oh, we can’t really be sure. There’s just something not right about them. There’s something... something uncomfy about them,” explained the Emu. "Like someone’s put some stuff, like gravel or dirt or something like that, inside the nest. Very unboopy stuff, whatever it is."

"Hmmm. Who would put gravel or dirt in a bird’s nest?" wondered M & T.

The birds spent all day trying to get the gravel and dirt out of their nests. They only left their nests for a short time to go hunting for some food. When they came back, there were squawks and screeches from all the 1700 birds of SnoozyTown.

Their nests had been filled again with grainy, awful, uncomfy gravel and dirt.

"Oh no," said M & T. Cookie put his head in his wing. He really wanted to snooze.

That night, the 1700 birds tried to sleep. But they couldn’t. They were up all night. To try to pass time, some of them squawked, some rustled, and others didn’t know what else to do except make a bit of birdsong. And they sang so beautifully, the birds. There’s nothing like birdsong.

Cookie came back the next morning, even more tired than the other day. His eyes were barely able to stay open, which is dangerous for a bird that needs to fly through a town.

"Nobody slept again. The dirt that’s getting into our feathers, it’s getting into our toes. It’s totally unboopable. So, so awful. Nobody can sleep. None of the 1700."

"OK, what are we going to do?" said M & T.

"You get the dirt out, and we’re going to see what’s happening with those nests," they said.

As the birds flew off to get their berries and their food from all around SnoozyTown, M & T hid in the bushes near a few of the nests. They had their binoculars and they were camouflaged. T was dressed as a raspberry bush and M had worn all brown to look like a tree trunk. They waited.

And that’s when they saw a cloaked figure springing through the forest. The stranger was carrying a black bag and as it moved, it looked skyward, perhaps checking for birds.

As it tippy-toed from tree to tree, it would dip its hand into the bag and throw something into any nest it saw.

Pitter-patting from nest to nest it went. M & T watched it patiently. At one point, as it moved past, they thought they could smell an earthy scent.

M said, "Quick, let’s go!"

They began to chase the mystery figure. But it was just too fast. It ducked away behind a tree at the edge of the forest, ran down an alley into the town, and was gone.

When the 1700 birds were back, M & T told them what they’d seen.

"Someone is going around and throwing dirt in your nests."

"Yes, but why?" said the birds. "We don’t do anything to anyone."

"Hopefully they won’t come back because they know we’re here," said M & T.

But that night the birds didn’t sleep well again. There was not a lot of booping. Some got some of the dirt out, but it was just too grainy.

The next day, M & T had a plan.

"We’ll hide again. This time we’ll try and catch the figure." T whispered an idea into M’s ear.

M smiled. "Oh, that’s nice," she said. "That’s a good one."

M & T brought their spades to the forest and got to work from the early morning. After a few hours they were sweaty, tired, but ready.

The 1700 birds, finished cleaning their nests, came and looked at what M & T were doing.

"What are you up to?" they said.

"You just watch," smiled the pair.

Later that day, when the birds flew off to feed, M & T put back on their costumes and hid in the bushes. Binoculars looking out. After some time, the hidden tippy-toer appeared in the forest again.

Today the disguised baddie was more careful and cautious, looking out for both the birds and M & T.

Their steps were slow and watchful. But they passed right beside a raspberry bush and tree trunk, without noticing a thing.

For some reason, M & T suddenly smelled vegetables, but didn’t jump out. They didn’t use a net. They just waited.

The figure again carried its bag and stepped from nest to nest, throwing dirt as it moved. It seemed to forget about M & T and started to enjoy itself again. It was whistling as it threw more and more dirt into the nests.

It tippy-toed, and it tippy-toed, and then crash!

There was a loud noise and the figure disappeared down into the ground.

"Hey!" it shouted. "Let me out!"

M & T walked up to the big hole in the ground and looked inside. And there in the middle was the hooded individual, in a giant nest. An underground nest.

Cookie and some of the birds started coming back and were screeching and dancing around and saying, "M & T, you caught the figure!"

"Yeah," said M & T. "We caught him in a nest. We built a nest in the ground, and now he’s fallen in there. Now you show yourself."

The figure said, "Oh, I’m sorry," and slowly took off its hood, first revealing what appeared to be a green leafy undercoat.

The 1700 birds were all in the trees around, watching.

As they stared, their beaks opened with shock as Sneaky Cauliflower emerged from under the big cloak.

He stood in the giant nest underground and said, "I’m so sorry, birds. I know you haven’t slept well. But you see, I stand at the edge of the forest every day listening to your beautiful music. It’s so amazing. All of your birdsong. But when nighttime comes, you go quiet…

“I wanted birdsong to continue late into the night. I love it so much and I couldn’t think of any other way except to keep you up."

The 1700 birds were not happy with Sneaky Cauliflower. He had caused them sleep and boopless nights.

But in some way, they understood. Birdsong was beautiful. And it was a nice thing to say from Sneaky Cauliflower, even if he didn’t do a nice thing.

"I’m sorry," Sneaky Cauliflower said. "I have learned my lesson. Next time I’ll just ask."

Cookie whispered in the ear of a few other birds and said, "OK, Sneaky. You can’t do that again. And because you did that, you’re now going to sleep in that underground nest for three full nights. Exactly what happened to us. And here, here’s your bag of dirt."

The birds started to throw little grains of dirt down into the nest to make it especially uncomfy for Sneaky Cauliflower.

"Oh, OK guys. I deserve it," he said.

Then the 1700 birds said, "Now Sneaky, after your three days, you can come out. And we’ll record our birdsong. We’ll make you a little recording so you can listen to it whenever you want. We know you didn’t mean to do harm, so we’ll try to be nice."

Sneaky Cauliflower was happy. The birds were happy. They could sleep (and boop) again.

They flicked the last bits of dirt and gravel out of their nests into the big underground nest of Sneaky Cauliflower.

He looked out, accepting of his mistake, and dreaming of his nights of birdsong to come.

As he began three nights in his underground nest, the 1700 birds of SnoozyTown settled into their comfy, soft, treetop homes.

One by one they booped off to sleep for the best snooze of their lives.

And as they slept, so did SnoozyTown, as it settled down to sleep once more.

The End.