A lumberjack hiked into the woods with his axe and before chopping down the first tree, noticed a mama bird building a nest in it. He wanted to warn her so he banged on the trunk with the blunt end of his axe until she flew away to another tree. Unfortunately, he had to scare her out of that tree, too, because it would be cut down.

This happened a number of times, until after flitting from tree to tree, the flustered mama bird flew to a high rock to build her nest. She was finally safe. If the lumberjack could have talked to her he would have told her at the start, “You have to find a better place to settle because all these trees are coming down.” ¹