Tuesday, June 15, 2010

So Long

Under the auspices of dad, and sometimes mom, the birds have flown the nest. The first two left rather gracefully and flew a short leg off the porch and onto the neighbor's truck. From there, they jumped into the cover of a pine tree and spent the morning jumping from branch to branch.

The last two sent their parents into conniptions. There was a hell of a lot of twittering going on to get these two to a safe haven.


This little birdie flew out of the nest and into my living room window. Of course, this got the dog to caterwauling and carrying on, and likely scared the poor little bird. The dog has a ferocious bark and even through the closed window, it would still make your hair stand on end. So the baby hung out on the porch for a bit, hopping back and forth from where you see him to the wrought iron chair. I had to go to work, so I wasn't able to see how they got him out of his predicament, but he's gone and there aren't any feathers hanging around the place. The outcome must have been good.

This little bird gave us all conniptions. He was the last to leave the nest and was probably the smallest of the four. He flapped like mad coming out of the nest and smacked into the porch. He hopped down the steps and landed in the grass where he began chirping like a scared little bird. All at once, mom and dad swooped in to chatter instructions. The little guy hopped to the street nearly colliding with a car, crossed the boulevard and into the neighbor's yard. The neighbor with the cat who patrols the hood at night. I don't think he could fly, and I wonder if mom and dad stashed him in the thick ground cover in Kaye's garden.

It's over now, and not a moment too soon. These guys were making a filthy mess. If they were tenants, I'd evict them for their slovenly housekeeping skills. Tomorrow the porch will be scrubbed.

9 comments:

Devon said...

Great pictures! What fun to watch the whole process!

Jane said...

Wonder if they will have another brood this summer

ari_1965 said...

Neat to see them close up.

Stephanie V said...

The ordeals that bird parents - and the babies - go through before they are all safely airborne are heartstopping. Nice to know they made it.
You know you're only scrubbing it down so they have a nice clean space next year ...it's all for the birds.

Empress Bee (of the high sea) said...

i wish i wasn't so all fired a cared of birds, they are fascinating little creatures. i am scared they will peck out my eyes, comes from childhood but never went away!

smiles, bee
xoxoxoxoxoxoxo

Celia said...

I wonder if they'll come back next year?

Lisa L said...

they do make a mess with their nests..i can vouch for that:) we had birds nest one year on the eves of our lanai. the littles hatched and oh, what a powerful nature lesson it was, teaching our kids how mama brought her kids their meals yadda yadda. and then? and then...the minor birds (who can be very ugly and agressive in their behavior) swooped in and in front of our eyes, grabbed one baby bird at a time from the nest and killed them. for sport it seems. it was truely horrible to watch. nature *can* be cruel. my kids were horrified as were we.

Gail said...

You will miss them

Finding Pam said...

Rudee, I had to laugh at the last sentence about evicting the bird family because of their lack of house keeping skills.

I enjoyed the pictures and seeing the little birds grow up.