Caws and Pecking

   Crows cawed outside my house.
   A sparrow pecked the gutter above my bedroom. The bird was building a nest.
   For several days in a row, this ruckus of caws and pecking awoke me after dawn. I was loosing sleep. Something needed to be done.
   I purchased a scarecrow owl, climbed a ladder, and placed the owl in a tree near the gutter. The wind blew. The owl's head bobbed and rotated.
   Excellent! The movements of the owl would scare the bejeebers out of birds.
   The next morning I was awoken again--darn it all!--by that sparrow. It wasn't fooled. Or perhaps it was too stupid to recognize the owl.  But the crows bought into the charade. They haven't returned.
   Desperate for sleep, I raised the ladder a few more rungs until it neared the gutter. I would destroy that sparrow's nest.
   But what if eggs were laying inside the nest? Was it right to condemn unborn chicks in order to catch Z's? I decided that it would be cold hearted to harm innocent life. If I detected eggs, I'd leave the nest alone until later in the spring. Better to wait until the family of birds flew away once and for all.
   As it turned out, the nest was empty. I cleared the spot. The sparrow hasn't returned. 
   No more rude awakenings!
   Later, I wondered how I'd react if I came across a different species of varmint, like mice or rats, breeding in a nook and cranny of the house. Would I cut the same slack to baby rats as I would to baby birds?
   Is it okay or wrong to discriminate with our compassion?