It seems like only last week that they were babies and now they’re out on their own.
Wait a minute. It *was* last week.
With my camera set up on a tripod in our front hall and me sitting where the door frame blocked their view of me, I took photos of the nest from first glimpse to last farewell. We saw evidence of hatching on June 5 and what seemed to be feeding activity on June 8, but our first view of the young ‘uns was on June 14.
June 5
June 14
June 15
June 18
June 19, morning
June 19, afternoon
Buddy on the left exited the nest first and got going faster. After a bit of uncertain-on-his-feet hopping around, the parental units shepherded him/her across the street while some big guy held up car traffic for them. We might have seen Buddy later that afternoon, buzzing across the front yard as he flew into the small area of trees beside our house.
Buddy on the right waited a while before taking the plunge and then sat and stood and stretched for two hours on a chair on our porch before finally taking wing. The parental units hung around, chirping encouragement or reprimands.
And then, just like that, they were all gone. We wish them well with the neighbourhood cats.
Lovely to see your photos! I wish them luck!
Alison – Thanks! I guess I could look up the stats on first-year survival, but maybe I’d rather not know.
Isabel
Must have been delightful to watch the progress from hatchling to taking a leap into the world around.
Tom
Tom – It was. We couldn’t see them for the first 10 days or so until they got big enough to stick their all-beak-no-feathers heads up over the edge of the nest. The 5 days we did see were amazing.
By the way, what happened to your new design for your blog?
Tom
Tom – For now I’m going to stick with this version.
Nice documentary Isabel.
Are you ready for her to go to nest again??
Jim – Do you think she will? There was on-off nesting behaviour in April or May, a week or two before this non-stop effort. We couldn’t figure out what she was doing. For sure we’re good to watch another clutch.
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