Empty Nest

The baby birds have left the nest. Actually, they left on June 26, just a week and a half after they hatched! I didn't realize it would be that quick.
And it wasn't as happy an ending as I'd hoped.

The 4th baby bird that hatched a few days later than the rest, died after just 2 days. It was so much smaller than the rest, I think it couldn't compete for food.

Here's a picture with all 4 birds. The youngest baby is at the top of the nest, & you can see his little head is so much smaller that the other bird's heads.

And here's probably my favorite picture. Again, I wasn't really this close, it was the zoom. As I stepped near to take the picture, my foot snapped a little twig, & the noise made them think their mother was near. This is what they did:The above picture was taken on June 20, when they were just 5 days old.

A few days later during the weekend, one of the birds crawled/walked (?) out of the nest & was staying near the nest in the basket. We had just over an inch of rain on Saturday the 23rd. We looked in the nest the next morning & the bird that crawled out had died. :( I don't know why. Maybe it drowned? Maybe it couldn't get back in the nest so it could cuddle with the other birds to keep dry?


So then there were just 2. And on June 24 or 25, they decided that they too were tired of the nest & they prefered the basket. See? They're sitting just next to it. I was afraid they'd fall out.
Then, on June 26, they must have been ready & they left! It wasn't quite that simple. lol My dh came in the house & told me that one had fallen out of the nest/basket & the only way he knew was that our German Shepherd ran up to it & sniffed it! Not knowing for sure what to do, we decided to take our chances & put it back. My dh wore gloves & put him back. I was in the house when he put him back. But, what happend next let us know that he hadn't fallen out of the nest. As soon as dh put the bird back, he JUMPED out of the hanging basket & ran across the garden. He said it sure was a sight. LOL


So only this little guy was left:

This one spent the entire day alone in the basket. When we checked the nest after supper, he had left also. These are the dates:

The nest was noticed with 1 egg in it on June 2.

2 birds hatched on June 15.

1 bird hatched on June 16.

Last bird hatched June 18 or 19.

Both surviving birds left the nest on June 26.

So long little baby birds!

The picture below shows yet another bird nest. This one is under the lid on our propane tank. I think there's always a nest in there. We always see some type of blackbirds taking worms for their youngins in there. These eggs are about 3 times the size of the sparrrow eggs we had. We shut the lid & we will NOT be following the progress of this nest. LOL