Fly little bird....

[Coytee]

Wife has a 4-sided glass candle "thingy" on an outdoor table, right outside the kitchen window.  There's been a family budding there.  Only way in/out is through a smaller diameter hole in the top.  Mamma & Pappa had four chickies.

 

Mamma & Pappa have been dutifully building the nest, pro-creating, sitting on the eggs, hatching them and feeding them.  

 

Seems today was the day the chickies flew the coup.  Wife called me upstairs to watch.  Mamma & Pappa were outside the "nest", squawking at the chickies.  One of them even had some food in the mouth as though they were taunting the chickies saying "if you want this treat, COME TO ME (which is now outside the enclosure)  He kept it up for a while, never giving them the treat.

 

The chickies were bouncing in there a bit like popcorn as they couldn't fully fly yet to power themselves up to the narrow opening that was a mere 8 inches above their heads, not to mention they were getting flogged by their siblings as all four were trying to figure out how to escape.

 

Wife asked me if I thought she should open the side door.  I said probably no....  they're learning, their figuring out their wings....  give them a while before interfering.

 

I left.

 

They finally got out.

 

Mind you, we have a cat and he's a hunter.

 

Anyway, they got out.  Wife sat down and watched the show.  They evidently "flew" little hops from the deck to a tree about 15' away, then back.  Down to the ground, then bounced back up.  Everything was evidently a short jaunt as again, they're figuring out their wings.  I have no idea how long it takes them to be capable of full flight.

 

Carrot Top (cat) was inside sleeping during all the excitement.  I looked in the nest later on and it's empty.

 

Made me wonder what Mamma & Pappa are going to do over the next several days/weeks....  will they ever come back?  I have no idea.  Wife said that it's been used now for 2-3 springs in a row although we don't know if it's the same pair.

 

You may now return to your regularly scheduled riots and activists on TV.

[oldtimer]

Wrens?

[OO1]

23 minutes ago, Coytee said:

 will they ever come back?  I have no idea.  Wife said that it's been used now for 2-3 springs in a row although we don't know if it's the same pair.

 

 

birds always come back to the place they were born -

[BigStewMan]

you did the right thing by leaving them alone. this lady once said she couldn’t go anywhere because her cat was pregnant and might need a c-section (she was serious). I remember my Mom asking, “how did cats manage to have kittens before this lady was born?”  The animals know what they’re doing. 

[wuzzzer]

My wife rescued a baby cardinal that was stuck in some brush that was below its nest.  She took a cute picture of the ugly thing in its baby feathers. 

The next year a cardinal came and made another nest in a bush by our fence.  The male was very protective of the nest.  I would peek in the nest every so often to see how the babies were coming along.  I talked to the poppa real calmly when I would do it.  Eventually he would stay closer to me and I ended up hand feeding him a worm and some birdseed.

Was it the same one my wife rescued?  No idea.  It sure was neat. 

[Coytee]

7 hours ago, wuzzzer said:

She took a cute picture of the ugly thing in its baby feathers. 

 

Just this morning, my wife was telling me how cute they were when they figured out how to emerge from the enclosure....  she said they all looked like they had just woken up and had bed-head or pillow hair....  I said that might have been their baby feathers that they were in process of shedding (???)

[grasshopper]

we have swallows nesting here

They just fledged. One chick. The other died in a fall from the nest. Twice.

We have cats, too. First fall, both chicks were on the ground, one of our cats staring at them. I gather them up and place them back in the nest. Two days later, one one the ground. Parents raising hell.. It died. The other fledged OK. A couple day ago, cat was hanging on the inside of the screen door... a shape on the other side. Went out to see what it was. A fledgling. Figured it was the one left... Looked up and there were two others... Apparently the birds and cats have worked something out.   And they do return yearly..Run 3 clutches over the summer.

A couple years ago, we had a hummingbird nest in easy view... about 4 feet off the ground. The hummingbirds are not afraid of me. They will pick cat hair off my robe [while I'm wearing it] to use for nesting material.

[CECAA850]

15 hours ago, Coytee said:

Made me wonder what Mamma & Pappa are going to do over the next several days/weeks.... 

Empty nest syndrome.

[KlipschFish]

We hang fuschias every year under our eaves. There is always at least one nest made in them when I'm not looking. Then I go to water it and get my shorts scared off by the little wrens. It's part of Spring we look forward too. We have a couple little bird houses on posts in the back 40 but the birds like the hanging pots better.

[Coytee]

7 hours ago, CECAA850 said:

Empty nest syndrome.

 

My  wife is suffering from that it would seem.  She's really enjoyed watching them hatch, grow....  she said in the beginning when she would be out there, Mama bird would squawk at her...  but after a while, the bird got accustomed to my wife and totally ignored her, allowing her to get fairly close to see her feeding the chickies.

 

Now that they're gone, it's almost like she's lost a pet..... big void as she can't dote on them daily like she's been doing.

[Travis In Austin]

20 hours ago, wuzzzer said:

My wife rescued a baby cardinal that was stuck in some brush that was below its nest.  She took a cute picture of the ugly thing in its baby feathers. 

The next year a cardinal came and made another nest in a bush by our fence.  The male was very protective of the nest.  I would peek in the nest every so often to see how the babies were coming along.  I talked to the poppa real calmly when I would do it.  Eventually he would stay closer to me and I ended up hand feeding him a worm and some birdseed.

Was it the same one my wife rescued?  No idea.  It sure was neat. 

that is amazing!

[wuzzzer]

3 hours ago, dwilawyer said:

that is amazing!

 

Here's another pic.  I never got any of him eating out of my hand unfortunately.  When I fed him the worm you should have seen how excited he was.  He gobbled it up.